PROMOTION TO COMMAND OF THE GUIDES. 143 



driving the enemy from rock to rock, and finally 

 holding them at bay for several hours, while the 

 regular troops were employed in sacking and burn- 

 ing the villages below. This work over, the whole 

 force about 3 p.m. began falling back to its former 

 haltin2;-g;round. To retire in the face of a foe now 

 numbering more than 2000 was a task hardly less 

 difficult than the previous advance. " The with- 

 drawal of the Guides and Gurkhas," says an admir- 

 ing eyewitness, " was most exciting, and none but 

 the best officers and the best men could have 

 achieved this duty with such complete success. 

 Lieutenant Hodson's tactics were of the most 

 brilliant description, and the whole force, having 

 been once more reunited in the plain, marched out 

 of the valley by the Torana Pass, which, though 

 farthest from the British camp, was the shortest 

 to the outer plains."^ Here they were joined by 

 the Chief Commissioner, Sir John Lawrence, who 

 had watched the whole affair from a neighbouring 

 height. 



He, too, had nothing but praise for the victors. 

 " We had a splendid little force," he writes to Lord 

 Dalhousie. "The Afridis fought desperately, and 

 the mode in which the Guides and Gurkhas crowned 

 the heights which commanded the villages was the 

 admiration of every officer present. These are, 

 indeed, the right sort of fellows. Our loss is eight 

 men killed and twenty-four wounded. The men got 

 no water and suff'ered a good deal. I think this 

 expedition is calculated to do much good. The Bori 

 valley has not been entered by an enemy for many 

 hundred years, I believe, and the prestige which will 



1 From the 'Lahore Chronicle' for December 3, 1853. 



