1 190 MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES.
2 moment, Phoola Sing ordered his men to dismount and let
3 their horses go. This was done, and at the same instant
4 the Akalees shouted their war-cry of Wah Gooroojee I which
5 the Affghans as loudly answered with their Allah ! Allah !
6 The horses set at liberty, either from habit or alarmed by the
7 tumult, rushed wildly forward and into the ranks of the
8 enemy. This strange and unexpected attack caused some
9 confusion in the Affghan host, observing which the Akalees,
10 throwing down their matchlocks, rushed forward sword in hand
11 with such impetuousity as to drive back the enemy, and to
12 secure themselves a footing on the hill. The main body of
13 the Seiks witnessing this success of the Akalees, now took
14 heart, and with a loud cheer rushed forward en masse to take
15 advantage of it. By this movement, a body of twelve or fifteen
16 hundred Affghans was placed betwixt the Akalee band and
17 the advancing Seik army. Finding themselves thus exposed
18 on both sides, they took to night, endeavouring to elude
19 the Akalees who were above them, and to make their way
20 towards the summit, where their main body, some eight or ten
21 thousand men, was strongly posted. But Phoola Sing was
22 not the man to permit them to escape so easily ; he turned
23 and attacked them with such vigour that they were speedily
24 brought to a stand, and in the attempt to check his advance,
25 lost above six hundred men. The Akalee force, however,
26 was by this time reduced to little more than one hundred and
27 fifty. Yet this exploit of theirs, had so inspired the main
28 body of the army with courage and spirits that hastening to
29 the support of the little band of heroes, they completely routed
30 the Affghan detachment, and followed up their advantage
31 by a desperate effort to dislodge the more powerful body of
32 the enemy from its position on the summit of the hill. Phoola
33 Sing mounted on his elephant led the advance undeterred
34 by the receipt of another musket ball in his body. His Akalees
35 rushed on, in front of the attacking army, eager to close with