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180 humiliate them. The rank and file were furnished with means of returning to their homes. Back to their villages they went to toil,—to the plough again,—not as conquered enemies, but as free subjects of the Great Queen Victoria, to enjoy the same protection and privileges as the others under the British Crown. They would remain the same men as before; they had tasted of the salt of life, and its savour would never leave them. They had shed their blood in what they considered a good cause, and loyalty was still theirs to give, as we found so soon later on, when it was kindled anew after they recognised the spirit in which we met them and willingly grasped the hand held out to them.

With the crushing defeat of Gujerat perished the last hopes of resuscitating the Sikh kingdom. It was the final act of the tragedy which commenced on the banks of the Sutlej. The last stake had now been played and lost in a war exclusively of their own making. They had fought the British on more than equal terms; they were the first