Page:Viscount Hardinge and the Advance of the British Dominions into the Punjab.djvu/118

114 noitring and outpost duty. There was an advanced post at Rhodawála, where the staff kept a continual look-out. By a sort of mutual understanding between the contending armies, the British evacuated this post at nightfall, to be again occupied by them when the day broke; and this exchange of duties was scrupulously observed without opposition. Between this outpost and the entrenched camp of the enemy stretched a tract of low jungle; and it was one of the events of the day to watch General Gilbert, a noted pig-sticker, riding after the boars, which took him pretty close to the enemy's range, and although this repeatedly happened we never heard of his being molested.

A few days before the battle. Sir Henry Hardinge met with a severe fall while returning to his camp. His horse, an Arab which had just arrived from Bombay, came down, bruising his leg very severely. This did not prevent him from carrying on his heavy duties and correspondence as usual; and when the tidings of the approach of the siege train reached him, he hurried to the Commander-in-Chief's camp in a light mule carriage.

I must now glance at the conferences which took place between the two Chiefs before the attack commenced. They agreed that it would be highly imprudent to assault the entrenched position until it had been shaken by the fire of twenty heavy howitzers and mortars. The Governor-General addressed the Commander-in-Chief on the 7th February and then