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284 They brought six guns with them. To celebrate the event, the rebels came out in force, and attacked the British camp in the rear. The contest was most desperate, and the loss on both sides was heavy. Yule of the 9th Lancers was killed; Daly of the Guides and Becher, the Quartermaster-General, were wounded. Night fell upon a drawn battle, the rebels maintaining their position till the early morning. On the 23d, the anniversary of Plassey, the day foretold as that which would witness the downfall of British rule, they made a supreme effort to verify the prophecy. Fortunately the English had received that day a reinforcement of a company of the 75th Foot, four companies of the 2d Fusiliers, four H. A. guns, and part of a native troop, with some Panjábí infantry and cavalry, in all 850 men. The right bore the brunt of the attack, which was conducted with great courage and a coolness worthy of English troops. Reid and his Gurkhás, however, maintained their position, the 60th Rifles added to the imperishable glory they had previously acquired, and the Guides vied with them in cool courage. But for the steadiness displayed by Reid and the officers and men generally, it would have been impossible to hold the position. They did hold it, however, but it was only as the night fell, and after most desperate fighting, that the rebels fell back.

On the 24th Neville Chamberlain came from the Panjáb to assume the post of Adjutant-General. Reinforcements, too, sufficient to raise the effective strength of the British force to 6600 men, poured in from the Panjáb. But the rebels likewise had their share of fortune. On the 1st and 2d of July the Barélí brigade, consisting of four sipáhí regiments of infantry, one of cavalry, a horse-battery, and two post-guns, and commanded by a Subahdár of artillery, Bakht Khán by name, who was almost