1 CHAPTER XII.
2 UNDER BRITISH PROTECTION.
3 The Court party at Lahore wasted no time in useless
4 lamentations over the fate of the army of the Khalsa,
5 but straightway applied themselves to the task of
6 getting the best terms they could out of the con-
7 querors. Indeed, the Rani and those about her had
8 no tears to shed. Their fetters were broken ; and if
9 only the subjugation of the state could be averted,
10 they felt that the future could be faced with
11 equanimity. As for the Sikh soldiers, they were cowed
12 and bitterly disappointed. They had taken up arms
13 in the full belief that they were setting out to over-
14 throw the British Raj, and in the fourth round of the
15 contest they had been " counted out." But though
16 they took their punishment like men, and acknow-
17 ledged that they had been well and fairly beaten,
18 they nevertheless attributed their defeat to the in-
19 competence, if not to the treachery, of their leaders,
20 and man for man they still considered themselves a
21 match for their conquerors. They still believed in the
22 destiny of the Khalsa, and that at no distant date
23 they would once more raise the triumphant cry, Wd !
24 Guruji kd Khdlsa ! Wd ! Guruji hi Futeh !