Page:The Indian Mutiny of 1857.djvu/434

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE LAST EMBERS OF THE REVOLT.

In Haidarábád, throughout the Mutiny, the loyalty of the Nizam and of his able minister, Salar Jung, had been the surest guarantees of peace. In the early days of July 1857 the turbulence of the foreign troops in the service of the Nizam had caused an attack upon the Residency. But the able representative of British authority in that territory, Major Cuthbert Davidson, warned by Salar Jung, had time to make preparations which terminated not only in the discomfiture of the rebels, but in the capture and punishment of the leaders. Of the necessity of disarming one of the cavalry regiments at Aurangábád I have spoken in its place. But the aberration of the mutineers was but temporary. The men returned to their duty, and rendered, with their comrades in the contingent of the three arms, excellent service to the State. A little later, the Rájá of Shorápur, a Hindu tributary of the Nizam, broke out into treacherous revolt. But Major Davidson, acting in concert with Lord Elphinstone, called up from the Southern Maráthá country the column serving under Colonel Malcolm, whilst the Governor of Madras, Lord Harris, despatched to the spot a force under Major Hughes. The troops of the Haidarábád contingent, under Captain Wyndham, proceeded likewise to aid in the coercion of the deluded prince. The latter, after a vain attempt to lure Wyndham to his destruction, surrendered himself as