ment; but when Mr. Vans Agnew, a Bengal civil servant and assistant to the British Resident at Lahore, and Lieutenant Anderson, of the Bombay Fusiliers, proceeded to Mooltan to complete the arrangement, on the 17th of April, 1848, they were attacked and desperately wounded They retired with their weak escort to a small fort outside the town, being accompanied by Sirdar Khan Singh; but, three days afterwards, the Mooltan troops attacked the fort; the Sikh garrison within immediately opened the gates and let in the assailants, and both Mr. Agnew and Lieutenant Anderson were barbarously murdered.
The outbreak at Mooltan was followed by the discovery of a conspiracy of the most alarming character at Lahore, having for its object the massacre of all the British officers, the expulsion of our whole force from the Punjaub, and a revolution in the Sikh government. Attempts had been made to seduce the Sepoys from their allegiance; on discovering which, the British Resident, Sir Frederick Currie, directed certain native officers whose fidelity he could rely on to fall in with the plans of the conspirators, by which means the whole plot was disclosed. Three native corps, it was found, had been tampered with, but only a small number of the men had yielded to the temptations by which they were assailed: undoubted proofs, however, were discovered of persons of the highest rank being privy to the plot.
It speedily became apparent that the zeal of Dewan Khan Singh, in defence of the unfortunate British officers deputed to accompany him to his new government, was altogether assumed, and that he was in league with the conspirators in Lahore and elsewhere, by whom a scheme had been matured for overpowering the British, and expelling them from the country. In the neighbourhood of Lahore, a Gooroo, or priest, named Maharaj Singh, had raised the standard of revolt, and speedily collected a numerous force of the disbanded Sikhs, among whom he enjoyed a reputation for great sanctity. By this means the British forces at Lahore were prevented from at-
