Page:The Indian Mutiny of 1857.djvu/410

374 there the Maulaví and Náná Sáhib, but both had fled he knew not whither. Leaving there a small detachment, under Colonel Hale, he moved then on Miránpur Katrá, picked up there, as I have told, the brigade but recently commanded by Penny, and marched on Barélí. There Khán Bahádur Khán still tyrannised. It seemed as though he had resolved to strike a blow for the permanence of his sway.

It was seven o'clock on the morning of the 5th of May when Sir Colin led his troops to attack the rebel chieftain. In his first line he had the Highland brigade, composed of the 93d, 42d, and 79th, supported by that excellent Sikh regiment the 4th Panjáb Rifles, and the Balúch battalion, with a heavy field-battery in the centre, and horse-artillery and cavalry on both flanks. The second line, composed of the 78th, seven companies of the 64th, and four of the 82d, and the 2d and 22d Panjáb Infantry, protected the baggage and the siege-train. The enormous superiority of the rebels in cavalry required such a precaution.

It was apparently the object of the rebels to entice the British to the position they had selected as the best for their purposes, for they abandoned their first line as Sir Colin advanced, and fell back on the old cantonment of Barélí, covering their movement with their cavalry and guns. Sir Colin, inclined to humour them, anxious only to bring them to action, crossed the Nattiá rivulet, and was advancing beyond it, when the Gházís, men who devoted their lives for their religion, made a desperate onslaught on a village which the 4th Panjábis had but just entered. With the élan of their rush they swept the surprised Sikhs out of the village, and then dashed against the 42d, hastening to their support Sir Colin happened to be on the spot. He had just time to call out, 'Stand firm,