Although in the kindness of his heart Lake had at first endeavoured to smooth matters over, he knew Natives well, and he readily admitted the wisdom of Nicholson’s action.  Indeed, Nicholson’s uncompromising bearing on this occasion proved a great help to Lake, for it had the best possible effect upon the Kapurthala people; their manner at once changed, all disrespect vanished, and there was no more swaggering about as if they considered themselves masters of the situation.

Five or six years after this occurrence I was one of a pig-sticking party at Kapurthala, given by the Raja in honour of the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Hugh Rose.[9] When riding home in the evening I found myself close to the elephant on which our host and the Chief were sitting.  The conversation happening to turn on the events of the Mutiny, I asked what had become of General Mehtab Sing.  The Raja, pointing to an elephant a little distance off on which two Native gentlemen were riding, said, ‘There he is.’  I recognized the General, and making him a salaam, which he politely returned, I said to him, ’I have not had the pleasure of meeting you since those hot days in June, 1857, when I was at Jullundur.’  The Raja then asked me if I knew Nicholson.  On my telling him I had been his staff officer, and with him at the durbar at Lake Sahib’s house, the Raja laughed heartily, and said, ’Oh! then you saw Mehtab Sing made to walk out of the room with his shoes in his hand?  We often chaff him about that little affair, and tell him that he richly deserved the treatment he received from the great Nicholson Sahib.’

Sir Hugh Rose was greatly interested in the story, which he made me repeat to him as soon as we got back to camp, and he was as much struck as I was with this spontaneous testimony of a leading Native to the wisdom of Nicholson’s procedure.

On taking over command, Nicholson’s first care was to establish an effective system of intelligence, by means of which he was kept informed of what was going on in the neighbouring districts; and, fully recognizing the necessity for rapid movement in the event of any sudden emergency, he organized a part of his force into a small flying column, the infantry portion of which was to be carried in ekkas.[10] I was greatly impressed by Nicholson’s knowledge of military affairs.  He seemed always to know exactly what to do and the best way to do it.  This was the more remarkable because, though a soldier by profession, his training had been chiefly that of a civilian—­a civilian of the frontier, however, where his soldierly instincts had been fostered in his dealing with a lawless and unruly people, and where he had received a training which was now to stand him in good stead.  Nicholson was a born Commander, and this was felt by every officer and man with the column before he had been amongst them many days.