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CHAPTER VII. 



THE SECOND SIKH WAR. 1848-1849. 



All through July and August 1848 the blaze of 

 an organised revolt spread wider and wider through- 

 out the Land of the Five Rivers. Here and there 

 in the outlying districts a few English officers still 

 held their ground amidst a swarm of enemies con- 

 cealed or open. While Edwardes and Lake were 

 anxiously watching the movements of doubtful Sikh 

 allies encamped beside them, and were clearing the 

 ground for the force of all arms with which General 

 Whish was about to open the regular siege of 

 Multan, George Lawrence at Peshawar, James 

 Abbott in the Hazara highlands, and John Nichol- 

 son in the country between Attock and Hasan 

 Abdal, were striving their hardest to keep back 

 the flowing tide of Sikh rebellion. In Lahore alone 

 a strong British garrison overawed the secret plotters 

 and maintained the peace of the surrounding dis- 

 tricts. 



It was from the Sikh capital that Hodson wrote 

 on September 3: "We have had stirring times 

 lately, though I personally have had little share 

 in them. Multan is at last invested, and we expect 

 daily to hear of its fall. Meanwhile a new outbreak 



