Page:The Earl of Auckland.djvu/194

188 The officers for their part would take no denial. Abbott had got his guns ready for action without orders. After a long and stormy discussion the General, who wanted moral rather than physical courage, gave way; and by daylight of the 7th of April Sale himself led 1,800 of his troops to the attack, in three columns, commanded respectively by Dennie, Monteath, and Havelock. The enemy numbered about 6,000. Within two hours the fight was over: Akbar's troops were in full retreat to Laghmán; his four guns, the trophies of our shame at Kábul, were in our hands, together with three standards, all the camp-furniture, ordnance-stores, and much grain. The completeness of a victory which might have been won as easily some weeks before was marred only by the death of Colonel Dennie, who fell in a needless attack upon a small fort that might safely have been let alone. With a loss of eleven slain and seventy-one wounded, Sale's brigade had forestalled one object of Pollock's advance.

On the 16th of April Pollock's division encamped outside the stronghold whose brave defenders were officially hailed by Lord Ellenborough with the sounding title of 'The Illustrious Garrison.' One incident of the siege is worth recording by the way. Out of the 500 sheep captured on the 1st of April, 40 were assigned to the 35th Sepoys, who made them over at once to their white comrades of the 13th Foot, declaring that the Europeans were in more need of animal food than themselves.