Multan is situated on the river Chenab, about 200 miles to the south-west of Lahore. The two Englishmen reached the place in April, and took up their quarters at a mosque in the suburbs. Mulraj paid them a visit, and there was some disagreement about the accounts, but the two Englishmen went over the fortress with Mulraj, and all three left the place together on horseback. At that moment the two Englishmen were felled from their horses. Mulraj galloped away into the country, and the two Englishmen were carried away to the mosque and brutally murdered. Mulraj returned to the fortress, and issued a proclamation calling on the people of all religions to revolt against British supremacy. [Sidenote: Revolt of Shere Singh.] The Sikh and British authorities at Lahore treated the outbreak as an isolated rebellion. Lieutenant Herbert Edwardes, a rising officer, marched an irregular force against Multan; but though he defeated the rebels, he could not capture the fortress. A Sikh noble, named Shere Singh, marched from Lahore to co-operate with Edwardes, and a British force under General Whish was also sent in a like direction. It turned out, however, that Shere Singh was negotiating with the rebels inside the fortress, whilst swearing fidelity to the British authorities outside. When the British guns had opened fire, and the capture of the fortress was a mere question of hours, Shere Singh suddenly beat the drum of the Khalsa, proclaimed a religious war against the British, and started for the north with the whole of his men as fast as their long Sikh legs could carry them. Whish saw that pursuit was hopeless, and could only entrench his troops and wait for reinforcements whilst keeping watch on Multan. [Sidenote: Army of the Khalsa.] The hot weather was coming on, British advance was delayed, and the British authorities at Lahore were discovering that a second Sikh war was inevitable. The queen-mother was organising a general confederacy against the British government, but her intrigues were found out in time, and she was sent to Benares to repent at leisure. Rebel chiefs were plotting in all directions to get rid of the British government, and bring back the old days of anarchy and plunder. Later in the year many villages were found empty. The able-bodied men had gone off to join rebel chiefs, and fight once more for God and the Khalsa; and no one remained behind but the halt and the lame, the women and the children. [Sidenote: Afghans occupy Peshawar.] To crown all, Dost Mohammed, Khan of Cabul, had joined the rebel Sikhs. As a Mohammedan he must have hated the Sikhs and their religion, especially as Runjeet Singh had wrested the important valley of Peshawar from Afghan dominion. But he saw his opportunity to recover Peshawar. He overran the valley and captured the fortress of Attock; and he determined that whatever might happen, he would hold Peshawar for the future against Sikh or Englishman. [Sidenote: Gough's advance, 1848.]