The Story of the Guides | Page 2

Chief with a thousand spears--The Englishman's disguise fails--Death in the morning--A hairbreadth escape--Abdul Majid--The fatal shoes--The compass down the well--A night with his jailer--A stroke for freedom--A later meeting--Peace and jollification 144
CHAPTER XII.
THE RELIEF OF CHITRAL.
The beleaguered garrison--Two hundred miles from anywhere--Rapid mobilisation--Kelly's fine feat--Storming the Malakand--The Guides' charge in the Swat Valley--Roddy Owen--The Panjkora--Position of the Guides--The bridge breaks--The fight in retreat--Seven thousand held at bay--A battle on the stage--Colonel Fred. Battye mortally wounded--A night of suspense--Defeated by star-shells--Death of Capt. Peebles--Action of Mundah--Relief of Chitral 160
CHAPTER XIII.
THE MALAKAND, 1897.
A sudden call on the Guides--Prompt departure and fine march--Days and nights of constant hand-to-hand fighting--Story of the trouble--Great bravery of the enemy--Repulsed again and again with slaughter--Reinforcements arrive--Sir Bindon Blood--Relief of Chakdara--Its splendid defence--A word for the British subaltern--The fight at Landaki--MacLean's heroic death--Three V.C.s in one day 172
CHAPTER XIV.
THE HOME OF THE GUIDES.
A camp to start with--The Five Star Fort--On the borders of Yaghistan--After the mutiny--The bastions--Godby cut down--The mess--The garden--The old graveyard--The Kabul memorial--Ommanney's assassination--The names of roads--Old leaders--The farm--Polo-grounds--Church--Daily life--Sport--Hawking--Climate--A happy home 185

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Sir Harry Lumsden, who raised the Guides, from a portrait made when he was commanding the corps Front.
Afridis on the war-path To face page 8
Ressaldar Fatteh Khan, Khuttuk, who at the head of seventy men of the Guides' Cavalry defeated and drove into Mooltan a Brigade of Sikh Cavalry, from a picture by W. Carpenter. By kind permission of General Sir Peter Lumsden, G.C.B. " 24
A Picquet of the Guides' Infantry bivouacking " 40
A Scout of the Guides' Cavalry warning his Infantry Comrades. The small man on the right is a Gurkha " 70
A non-commissioned officer of the Guides' Infantry " 80
An Afridi of the Guides' Infantry " 92
The Memorial Arch and Tank to the memory of Sir Louis Cavignari and the officers and non-commissioned officers and men of the Guides killed in the defence of the Kabul Residency, September 3, 1879. In the foreground is a brass cannon captured during the Relief of Chitral " 104
Statue of Lieutenant Walter Hamilton, erected in Dublin Museum " 107
A Trooper of the Guides' Cavalry Types of men in the Guides' Infantry " 136
Types of men in the Guides' Cavalry, both in uniform and mufti " 144
Non-commissioned Officer and Trooper of the Guides' Cavalry " 162
Thirty-four wearers of the Star "For Valour," all serving at one time in the Corps of Guides. This is the highest distinction open to an Indian soldier for gallantry in action. The group illustrates the variety of tribes enlisted in the Guides--Afridis, Yusafzai Pathans, Khuttuks, Sikhs, Punjabi Mahomedans, Punjabi Hindus, Farsiwans (Persians), Dogras, Gurkhas, Kabulis, Turcomans, &c., &c., most of whom are here represented " 172
The old Graveyard at Mardan " 190
The Church at Mardan " 194

THE STORY OF THE GUIDES
CHAPTER I
FIRST STEPS IN WAR
It is given to some regiments to spread their achievements over the quiet centuries, while to the lot of others it falls to live, for a generation or two, in an atmosphere of warlike strife and ever present danger. The Guides have been, from a soldier's point of view, somewhat fortunate in seeing much service during the past sixty years; and thus their history lends itself readily to a narrative which is full of adventure and stirring deeds. The story of those deeds may, perchance, be found of interest to those at home, who like to read the gallant record of the men who fight their battles in remote and unfamiliar corners of the Empire across the seas.
To Sir Henry Lawrence, the preux chevalier, who died a soldier's death in the hallowed precincts of Lucknow, the Guides owe their name and origin. At a time when soldiers fought, and marched, and lived in tight scarlet tunics, high stocks, trousers tightly strapped over Wellington boots, and shakos which would now be looked on as certain death, Sir Henry evolved the startling heresy that to get the best work out of troops, and to enable them to undertake great exertions, it was necessary that the soldier should be loosely, comfortably, and suitably clad, that something more substantial than a pill-box with a pocket-handkerchief wrapped round it was required as a protection from a tropical sun, and that footgear must be made for marching, and not for parading round a band-stand.
Martinets of the old school gravely shook their heads, and trembled for the discipline of men without stocks and overalls. Men of the Irregular Cavalry, almost as much trussed and padded as their Regular comrades (who were often so tightly clad as to be unable to mount without assistance), looked with good-natured tolerance on a foredoomed failure. But Sir Henry Lawrence had the courage of his opinions, and determined to put his theories to practice, though at first on a small scale.
Not only were the Guides to be sensibly