The Chiling Pass into
Chitral had given trouble of old, but Mackintosh was scarcely prepared
for the systematic assaults of Punialis and Tangiris from the east and
south. Having always been famous as an alarmist he put the right
interpretation on the business, and settled down to what he half hoped,
half feared, might be a great frontier war. The place was strong only
on the north side, and the defence was as much a question of engineering
as of war. His Sepoys toiled gallantly at the incomplete defences,
while the rest fought hand to hand--bayonet against knife, Metford
against Enfield--to cover their labour. He lost many men, but on the
evening of the next day he had the satisfaction of seeing the
fortifications complete, and he awaited a siege with equanimity, as he
was well victualled.
On the second night the enemy again attacked, but the moon was bright,
and they were no match for his sharpshooters. About two in the morning
they fell back, and for the next day it looked as if they proposed to
invest the garrison. But by the third evening they began to melt away,
taking with them such small plunder as they had won. Mackintosh, who
was a man of enterprise, told off a detachment for pursuit, and cursed
bitterly the fate which had broken his ankle with a rifle-bullet.
In the south along the railway the warnings came in good time.
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