1 THE ARMY OF THE PUNJAUB. 67
2 ^^the Mahomedan sabre all the time doing its
3 work brilliantly. Upwards of five hundred were
4 left dead and wounded on the field, and the
5 career of the faithftil was only arrested by the
6 bayonets of the Sikh infantry. Here the charger
7 of their brave leader, Akhbar Khan, received
8 three musket balls and three bayonet wounds,
9 and had one of his hind legs shattered by a spent
10 ball. The noble animal fell ; and luckily for his
11 rider was it so ordained, for at the moment he
12 was hurled to the ground, a volley firom the whole
13 Sikh infantry emptied every saddle within range
14 of its burden !
15 It is no more than just, however, to set off the
16 foregoing anecdote by stating that the bravest
17 troops of all nations have, at some time or other,
18 been overthrown by a coup de main and its con-
19 sequent panic. It might be invidious to par-
20 ticularize the instances, and would certainly be
21 superfluous, for some of them are still fresh in the
22 recollection of the present generation.
23 But although the Sikh soldier may not claim
24 credit for a greater degree of prowess than other
25 Oriental troops, he possesses some qualities in-
26 valuable to the military man. He has the
27 faculty of subsisting upon a very small quantity
28 of food — a faculty peculiarly favourable to the
29 indulgence of his avarice; and he is capable
30 of enduring great fatigue, and of accomplishing