1 204 A Short History of the Sikhs.
2 belonging to the troops of Huish and Christie, and
3 five or six colours borne by the 24th foot, the 25th,
4 30th, 56th native infantry, remaining in the enemy's
5 hands." * What wonder that the Sikhs, though their
6 own loss nearly trebled that of the British, were
7 exultant, and that, on regaining the heights of
8 Rassiil, they fired a salute in honour of their
9 success ?
10 For some days after Chilianwala, heavy and con-
11 tinuous rain fell, rendering further operations im-
12 possible. Towards evening on the 24th January a
13 Sikh salute of twenty-one guns told the British of the
14 arrival of Chattar Singh, who brought with him, in
15 addition to his troops, his British prisoners, George
16 Lawrence, Herbert, and Bowie. Two days later
17 a royal salute from the British camp announced
18 the fall of Multan, and the same day the Sikhs
19 made an attempt to negotiate terms. " I was looking
20 through the battery spy-glass at the Sikh camp,"
21 wrote a British subaltern in his diary, "when our
22 guns thundered out the welcome news, and I could
23 see as the loud report from the heavies came booming
24 through the air it seemed to swarm with human
25 beings. Thousands upon thousands seemed to be
26 rushing about not knowing what to make of it.
27 Bowie, one of our politicals, came into our camp
28 to-day on parole, with a proposition from Sher
29 Singh as to terms ; but the only terms we can give
30 them, I suspect, they will find hard to swallow, with-
31 out a little more fighting — namely, unconditional
32 1 History of the British Empire in India, by Lionel James Trotter,
33 vol. i. p. 186.