Sepoys had only half-rations of áta, or wheaten meal. Pollock's heart yearned to hasten to the rescue of his beleaguered comrades, who, if Sale had so willed it, might long since have rescued themselves. A timely capture of 500 sheep on the 1st of April relieved Sale's garrison from present anxieties on the score of food. About the same date Pollock knew that he would have to force his way through the Kháibar Pass. for Mackeson's negotiations with the Afrídí chiefs had been cut short by the sudden march of a body of Akbar's soldiery to Alí Masjid[1].
By that time also the long uncertainty as to the part which our Sikh allies might bear in the impending movement had come to an auspicious end. For weeks past George Clerk and his active lieutenant, Captain Henry Lawrence, the future ruler of the Punjab, had spared no conceivable effort to secure for Pollock's enterprise a strong and seasonable backing of Sikh troops. While Clerk's diplomacy at Lahore emboldened Sher Singh to order the assemblage of a powerful force at Pesháwar, under Guláb Singh, the wily Rájá of Jammú, Lawrence's bold counsels and ubiquitous energy made themselves felt in numberless details of military and civil business, and hurried on the march of laggard Sikh commanders towards the front. Nothing in fact seemed to tire him, and no sort of work came amiss to his hands. Pollock very soon discovered the worth of the young political, to whose unwearied zeal and ready forethought he was
- ↑ Marshman; Broadfoot.
