1 And the loss
2 of life great.
3 Causes of the
4 shortness of
5 the duration
6 of campaign.
7 254 HISTORY OF THE SIKHS.
8 in a fair field, the contest would have been of
9 short duration, though the loss of life would, no.
10 doubt, have been great if the guns had been taken
11 at the point of the bayonet, as occurred at Maharaj-
12 pore. But the Sikhs had before their eyes that
13 famous engagement with the Mahrattas ; and they
14 were perfectly aware that they could not calculate
15 on the chance of victory without entrenching their
16 position. Having formed such an entrenchment
17 at Feerozshuhur, the loss of European officers and
18 soldiers was necessarily great, when exposed to the
19 murderous fire of upwards of 2 hundred guns deal-
20 ing out the deadly grape upon a comparatively small
21 force of Europeans. Again, at Sobraon the en-
22 trenchment assumed the form of a regular fortifica-
23 tion, and the troops opposed to the portion where
24 an entrance was impracticable, must have suffered
25 severely in killed and wounded; and the result of
26 the attack by the first and second divisions shows
27 how terrible the loss was against impregnable walls
28 lined by Sikhs in triple rows.
29 When the campaign first began, most of those:
30 engaged in it were of opinion that two years, at
31 least, would be required for its completion; and
32 had affairs taken another turn—had the Sikhs,
33 after the battle of Feerozshuhur, remained on their
34 own side of the river, and opposed the passage of
35 the British across, we should, after forcing the
36 Sutlej, have followed them to their capital or to
37 Umnritsir and Goyindghur, and the campaign would
38 have been prolonged to one or two years, instead