1 56 A Short History of the Sikhs.
2 No sooner had the Afghans departed, than the
3 exasperated Sikhs reopened the struggle. After
4 holding a gurumata, or public council, at Amritsar,
5 they marched southward with a force of nearly forty
6 thousand men. Having captured and sacked Kasur,
7 a town near Sobraon, on the banks of the Sutlej,
8 they pressed on to Sirhind. Zin Khan, who came
9 out to meet them, was defeated and killed, and for
10 the second time the murder of the sons of Govind
11 Singh was avenged. The Sikhs left not a house
12 standing in Sirhind, and the place was pronounced
13 accursed for eyermore. The whole province fell into
14 their hands, and the districts around the capital were
15 added to the domain of iCla Singh of Patiala.
16 It was not long before intelligence of this daring
17 exploit reached Kabul ; and for the seventh time
18 Ahmad Shah led his forces across the Indus. As
19 usual the Sikhs scattered at his approach, and when
20 he reached the plains of Sirhind he searched for them
21 in vain. It was not until he was well on his way
22 home that a sharp attack on his rearguard apprised
23 him of the whereabouts of his ubiquitous foes. The
24 end of the struggle seemed as far off as ever ; and even
25 the indefatigable Shah at last began to show signs of
26 wearying of a warfare in which he was never able to
27 make full use of his strength. He was too good
28 a soldier himself not to admire the indomitable
29 courage of the Sikhs, and if in the end he preferred
30 to conciliate rather than to exterminate them, we may
31 believe that his policy, though dictated by necessity,
32 was not altogether opposed to his inclinations. As
33 a first step towards a more friendly understanding,