Page:The Marquess of Dalhousie.djvu/86

78 But meanwhile the siege-force at Múltán, having accomplished its work, moved northwards to join the shattered forces of the Commander-in-Chief. Before Sir Charles Napier could arrive, Lord Gough, on the 20th February, 1849, retrieved his reputation, and ended the war by the crowning victory of Gújrát. The British army with 24,000 men and ninety guns there found themselves face to face with the Sikh forces 40,000 strong with sixty cannon — and an open battle-field between the two arrays. Gújrát was essentially a forenoon battle, with the whole day before the combatants to finish their work. It commenced with a magnificent duel of artillery; the British infantry occupying post after post as they were abandoned by the enemy; and the British cavalry breaking up the Sikh masses and scattering them by pursuit. Of the sixty Sikh guns engaged, fifty-three were taken.

Lord Dalhousie resolved to make the victory a final one. 'The war,' he declared, 'must be prosecuted now to the entire defeat and dispersion of all who are in arms against us, whether Sikhs or Afghans.' General Gilbert hurried out with a pursuing force of twelve thousand, horse, foot and artillery, the day after the battle. In the breathless chase which followed across the plains of the Punjab to the frontier mountain-wall, the Sikh military power was destroyed for ever. On the