Page:Viscount Hardinge and the Advance of the British Dominions into the Punjab.djvu/122

118 It should be observed that these regiments carried the works with the bayonet alone, and without firing a shot. On the right the same results had followed the assault of Sir Harry Smith's Division. They too, for a second, had winced under a hailstorm of bullets, which it seemed impossible to weather. At this crisis the cavalry were ordered up under Sir Joseph Thackwell, who rode with his squadrons in single file through an opening in the entrenchment. It seemed as if they were doomed to destruction. Many fell in the ranks when within the camp. But the 3rd Light Dragoons, showing the same invincible bravery as on the night of the 21st of December, quickly re-formed and charged the serried ranks of the Sikh infantry.

Never perhaps was so obstinate a contest carried on to the end; never before was such cohesion displayed in the ranks of the Khálsa army. Compelled to retire, they gave way in such admirable order as to excite the admiration of the British soldiers. At last the fire slackened, and then ensued a scene which defies description. Pressed on all sides by our advancing infantry, the enemy were hemmed in in one confused mass at the head of the bridge, there to be shot down or hurled into the river below. Happening to be an eye-witness of what then occurred, I saw the bridge at that moment overcrowded with guns, horses, and soldiers of all arms, swaying to and fro, till at last with a crash it disappeared in the running waters, carrying with it those who had vainly hoped