Their honor, as they saw it, had been outraged.

Only two British regiments could be spared him, and they were both thinned by sickness from the first.

They were Sikhs, who formed the bulk of his headquarterless brigade, and many of them were last-minute friends, who came to him unorganized and almost utterly undrilled.
But Byng was a man of genius, and his bare reputation was enough to offset much in the way of unpreparedness.

He coaxed and licked and praised his new men into shape as he went along; within a week he had stormed Deeseera, blowing up their greatest reserve of ammunition and momentarily stunning the rebellion's leaders.

But cholera took charge in the city, and two days later found him hurrying out again, to camp where there was uncontaminated water, on rising ground that gave him the command of three main roads.