THE FIRST SIKH WAR. 33 



pell-mell, a tremendous fire of musketry pouring on 

 tliem from our bank, and the Horse Artillery finish- 

 ing their destruction with grape. The river is 

 literally choked with corpses, and their camp full 

 of dead and dying." 



Hodson himself " had the pleasure of spiking 

 two guns which were turned on us. Once more 

 I have escaped, I am thankful to say, unhurt, 

 except that a bullet took a fancy to my little finger 

 and cut the skin off the top of it — a mere pin- 

 scratch, though it spoilt a buckskin glove. I am 

 perfectly well : we cross in a day or two, but I 

 fancy have done with fighting." 



The fighting was over for that present. The 

 Sikh army was utterly broken : all their guns, 

 sixt5''-seven in number, a great many standards, 

 and a camp full of warlike stores, had fallen into 

 our hands. A few days later the fortress of 

 Philor, on the right bank of the Satlaj, opposite 

 Ludiana, surrendered without a shot to the troops 

 of Brigadier Wheeler. On February 13 Gough 

 himself was writing his despatches from Kassur, 

 and two days later, at the same place, the Sikh 

 leaders were listening to the terms on which 

 alone they might secure the maintenance of the 

 Sikh rule at Lahore. On February 27 Hodson 

 writes to his sister from Lahore : " On the 17th 

 we crossed the Satlaj, and are now encamped 

 close to old E-anjit Singh's capital, without a shot 

 having been fired on this side the river ! The 

 war is over; sixt}^ days have seen the overthrow 

 of the Sikh army, which, when that period com- 

 menced, marched from the spot on which the 



c 



