1 THE WUZEERUT OF HEERA SING. 105
2 standing their overwhelming numbers, their assault failed,
3 and they were, after continued and severe loss, compelled to
4 raise the siege and retreat to a distance of five or six miles
5 from the place. The princes had now with them about three
6 hundred horse and five hundred foot. But occasionally they
7 would sally out with about a hundred and fifty horse, and
8 suddenly attacking large bodies of the enemy would put
9 them to flight in thousands, burn and destroy their camp, and
10 carry off all that was worth removal. These feats were not
11 performed only under cover of darkness, as might be supposed,
12 but sometimes in broad daylight, and one or both of the brothers
13 invariably conducted the enterprise personally. The chiefs
14 themselves almost daily went out hunting, hawking, and
15 foraging for miles around, attended sometimes by not more than
16 thirty or forty horsemen, while from eight to nine thousand of
17 Goolaub Sing's troops, including two thousand cavalry, had in-
18 vested the place, and were doing their utmost for its reduction.
19 In one of these excursions, the two brothers, with about eighty
20 horse, were hawking at quails, &c. for two hours in the fields of
21 green corn, not more than six hundred yards from an en-
22 trenched camp, in which lay two thousand of the enemy's horse
23 with two guns. But they remained unmolested, not a man of
24 the besiegers daring to pass the bulwarks which their fear had
25 induced them to form. To such an extent did the audacious
26 gallantry of the two brothers and their followers work upon
27 the timid spirits of Goolaub Sing's men, that it became neces-
28 sary to send to Lahore for fresh troops. The Khalsa at first
29 refused to proceed against the reputed sons of the great Maha-
30 rajh; but afterwards on its being stipulated that no bodily in-
31 jury should be inflicted on the princes, they agreed to go.
32 They were not sent, however, but in their stead were despatched
33 one of the Majeeteea battalions and two Mahomedan battalions,
34 with the Shere regiment of horse, mostly Dogras or hill men,
35 in the pay of the Maharajh. They were accompanied by artil-
36 p