CHAPTER II.


A century and a half after, Govind Singh had kindled the hearts of his
countrymen with his prophetic visions of a military church regnant on
the hills of Kashmir, there took place the struggle which we call the
second Sikh war, culminating on the twenty-first of February in the
Battle of Gugerat followed by the surrender of the Sikhs to the British
under Lord Gough and the disbandment of the Sikh army. And, lo, the
Khalsa was as a tale that is told, its clang and clash of warlike
achievements a thing that could be no more, its Holy War transformed by
failure into a foolish chimera, and the only thing that lived was a
memory lingering in quiet souls of the truths that Nanuk taught.

"For shapes that come, not at an earthly call,
Will not depart when mortal voices bid."

But many whose faith was in their religion rather than in God felt their
spirit falter, and believed that the universe grew dark. This is ever
the weakness of disciples, and thus it is that while many flocking to
the new standard see all things made plain, others whose hopes are
entwined about the displaced creeds suffer an eclipse of faith.

Among those who in the fall of the Khalsa suffered life's last and
sorest loss was Raee Singh, an aged man, in whose veins ran the blood of
the gentle Nanuk. On that March morning when the disbanded army went to
lay down their arms before a victorious foe, he descended the mountain