Page:The Sikhs (Gordon).djvu/136

104 The occupation of Peshawar was Ranjit Singh's last campaign; it effectually sealed the solidarity of his power. There was now nothing more left in the Punjab for him to conquer, and he longed to extend his sway over the rich lands of Sindh south of Multan, for he was a conqueror at heart, animated to the end of his life with all the energy and fire of his early days of power. Being checkmated in this design by the British, he quietly controlled the hostile element at his Court, which urged him to action. On one of his sons, impelled by the war party, at a great parade imploring his father to let him lead the army against the English, the reply was, "No, my son; remember the two hundred thousand Mahratta spearmen who opposed the English; not one remains." Some of the old Sikh sardars, whose blood never ran cool enough for diplomacy, were very free now and then in expressing their ideas regarding his policy. A few years before, when the Jats of Bhurtpore, besieged by a British