then walked down the lines of their regiment, and directed the men to lodge their muskets in the bells of arms attached to each company. Some of them quietly obeyed, but others, calling out that the Europeans were coming to shoot them down unarmed, incited the rest to resist. Their appeal was responded to, for suddenly the sipáhís grasped their muskets, and noticing the Europeans approaching from the right, faced towards them and opened a brisk fire. At the first fire some eight men of the 10th Foot were shot down. This was more than could be borne. The English infantry returned the fire, still moving on, whilst the guns, unlimbering, poured in a volley of grape. Meanwhile, a shot from a sipáhí of the 37th had killed Captain Guise, commandant of the 13th Irregulars. Dodgson, the Brigade Major, as brave a man as ever lived, and as modest as he was brave, rode up to the men, and taking command, ordered them to advance. Instead of obeying, one trooper drew his pistol and fired at Dodgson. Another attempted to cut him down. At this crisis one of the Sikhs fired upon his colonel, Gordon. The rest of them, not knowing apparently what to make of the position, began shouting and firing indiscriminately, their muskets levelled in the direction in which the guns were posted. The guns were unsupported, for the English infantry was following the 37th N. I., and it seemed as though the Sikhs and the irregulars were about to charge them. But the commandant of the artillery, William Olpherts,[1] was quite equal to the occasion. He turned the fire of his battery upon the Sikhs. These then wildly charged, only, however, to be broken and to flee in disorder. The troopers of the 13th accompanied them. The
- ↑ It was of this officer that the late Lord Napier of Magdala said to me, that 'William Olpherts never went into action without entitling himself to the Victoria Cross.'
