Page:The Sikhs (Gordon).djvu/206

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170
THE SIKHS.

his Sikh force went over to the enemy in September, and before the end of the month left them, marching away north to join his father, Sardar Chutter Singh, the Sikh Governor of Hazara, who in August had revolted with all his troops. Not till December, when the British force at Multan was joined by a division from Bombay, was the siege vigorously resumed, ending by the capture of the city and surrender of the fort on 22nd January 1849, after a loss by them of 1200 killed and wounded. The bodies of the two murdered English officers were then taken from their neglected grave, wrapped in Kashmir shawls, carried up through the breach by the thousands of their countrymen who had come to avenge their death, and buried with military honours on the summit of the citadel.

The delay before Multan changed a local émeute into the rebellion of the whole Sikh nation, which now rose to re-establish the supremacy of the Khalsa and shake off the hold of the British, thinking that as