1 THE ARMY OF THE PUNJAUB. 1038
2 career of the faithful was only arrested by the
3 - bayonets of the Sikh infantry. Here the charger
4 of their brave leader, Akhbar Khan, received
5 three musket balls and three bayonet wounds,
6 and had one of his hind legs shattered by a spent
7 ball. The noble animal fell; and luckily for his
8 rider was it so ordained, for, at the moment he
9 was hurled to the ground, a volley from the whole
10 Sikh infantry emptied every peace within range
11 of its burden !
12 It is no more than just, re to set off the
13 foregoing anecdote by stating that the bravest
14 troops of all nations have, at some time or other,
15 been overthrown by a coup de main, and its con-
16 sequent panic. It might be invidious to par-
17 ticularize the instances, and would certainly be
18 superfluous, for some of them are still fresh in the
19 recollection of the present generation.
20 But although the Sikh soldier may not claim
21 credit for a greater degree of prowess than other
22 Oriental troops, he possesses some qualities in-
23 valuable to the military man. He has the
24 faculty of subsisting upon a very small quantity
25 of food—a faculty peculiarly favourable to the
26 indulgence of his avarice; and he is capable
27 of enduring great fatigue, and of accomplishing
28 marches that none but the Turkoman Tartars
29 can perform. The distance from Lahore to Pesha-
30 wur is 300 miles, and it has often been done in