1 72 HISTORY OF THE SIKHS.
2 along the whole rear of the infantry and guns,
3 silenced for a time the latter, and put their nume-
4 rous cavalry to flight. Whilst this movement was
5 taking place on the enemy’s left, I directed the re-
6 mainder of the 4th lancers, the 9th irregular
7 cavalry under Brigadier Mactier, with a light field
8 battery, to threaten their right. This manceuvre
9 was also successful. Had not the infantry and
10 guns of the enemy been screened by the jungle,
11 these brilliant charges of the cavalry would have
12 been productive of greater effect.
13 “When the infantry advanced to attack, Briga-
14 dier Brooke rapidly pushed on his horse artillery
15 close to the Jungle, and the cannonade was resumed
16 on both sides. The infantry under Sir Harry Smith,
17 General Gilbert, and Sir John McCaskill, attacked in
18 echellon of lines, and the enemy’s infantry were
19 almost invisible amongst wood and the approaching
20 darkness of night. The opposition of the enemy
21 was such as might have been expected from troops
22 who had everything at stake, and who had long
23 vaunted of their being irresistible. ‘Their ample
24 and extended line (from their great superiority of
25 numbers) far outflanked ours, but this was counter-
26 acted by the flank movements of our cavalry.
27 The attack of the infantry now commenced, and
28 the roll of fire from their powerful musketry soon
29 convinced the Sikh army that they had met with
30 a foe they little expected; and their whole force
31 was driven from position after position with great
32 slaughter and the loss of seventeen pieces of arti]_