Through the Sikh War: A Tale of the Conquest of the Punjaub

by G. A. Henty

"Have you any force there?"

"No, it is a very bad ford, and unless they get some boats they can hardly cross there; but we would not stop them if we could. How the British, who know so much of the art of war, can throw themselves like this into our hands is more than we can tell. We shall let them march up some miles, so that they can no longer retreat to the ford, then we shall fall upon them and exterminate them. We know their force, for the peasant, who was awakened by the noise made by the camp-followers and the growling of the camels and the rumbling of guns, crept up and counted them as they passed. There were five batteries, two of them native; five regiments of cavalry, four of them native; two white regiments of foot, and five regiments and a half of Sepoys. If you put them at five hundred men to each regiment, there are less than four thousand foot. What is that against the force we can bring against them? They will get to Wuzeerabad to-day, but it is a long march. The white troops will not be ready for much at the end of it, and few will get across to-night. It will be mid-day to-morrow before they are all over, even if they have boats, so that at most they will not arrive nearer than twelve miles by to-morrow night. The next day we shall finish with them."

Percy thought it was as well to keep to himself his conviction that the Sikhs would not find it so easy a business as they anticipated; yet he saw that unless our main army moved across to the attack, and so occupied a large portion of the Sikh force, or else considerably reinforced that advancing up the river bank, the position of the latter was indeed a perilous one. But he still felt confident in their power to resist an attack made upon them.

"I should be glad," he said to his two followers, as he talked the matter over during the day, "if they would move this tent of ours somewhere farther back from the bank. That battery below us is sure to come in for its share of the fire from the guns on the other side, and any ball that goes too high is as likely as not to pass through this tent."

"You may be sure that our guard won't wait here when that happens, sahib; they may leave the tent standing, but they will certainly march themselves and you off out of range."

Late in the afternoon a heavy fire was opened by the batteries on the opposite bank, and as the shells exploded, some over the Sikh batteries, some farther back over the bank, a great hubbub arose. The artillerymen ran down to their guns and replied to the fire. Drums and bugles called the troops under arms, orders were shouted in all directions, and the noises of the horses and baggage animals added to the uproar. The guard at once ran up and surrounded the tent.

"Come out, sahib," the officer said, "we are going to pull it down at once."

"All the better," Percy replied; "I have no desire to be shot by my friends."

The tent was speedily lowered, and it and its contents carried by the men half a mile from the bank and there re-erected. All the other tents along the bank were similarly removed.

As Percy had foreseen, the fire from the distant guns inflicted but little damage upon the Sikh batteries, so these, after replying for a short time, ceased to waste their ammunition, and the men retired behind the shelter of the bank, where they remained until the British fire ceased.