tranquillity. The Risálá was often assisted by regular troops, cavalry as well as infantry.
The adjoining station of Saharanpur was administered by two men possessing rare capacity and great courage, Mr Robert Spankie and Mr Dundas Robertson. These gentlemen, cast upon their own resources, not only maintained order among a rebellious and stiff-necked people, in very difficult circumstances, but they lent their aid to the adjoining districts. To use the words of the lamented Baird-Smith, Chief Engineer of the force besieging Dehlí, Mr Spankie, aided by his energetic subordinates, 'made law respected throughout the district, saved life and property within and beyond it to almost an incalculable extent.' Major Baird-Smith added: 'The ability to complete the works necessary for the capture of Dehlí, within the short time actually employed, was not more a consequence of the indefatigable exertions of the troops in the trenches than of the constant and laborious preparations systematically carried on for months beforehand. To the latter your' (Spankie's) 'aid was frequent and most important.'
Equally successful were the efforts of Mr H. G. Keene in Dehrá Dún; of Mr R. M. Edwards in Muzaffarnagar. In Bulandshahr the splendid exertions of Mr Brand Sapte restored order temporarily; but that station, Síkandarábád, Málágarh, and Khurjá were so much under the control of the disaffected and turbulent Gujar population that it was not possible to retain them permanently until the fate of Dehlí should be decided. The same remark applies to Áligarh, to Gurgáon, to Hisár, and to the district of Rohtak. The country likewise between Áligarh and Agra, notwithstanding the splendid exertions of the Agra volunteers, and the country between Agra and Dehlí, by way of Mathurá, remained in a state of rebellion during that long period of uncertainty.
