THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IN THE EAST. 123 



Spare the English, he knowing their critical position. The 

 army followed his example, and retreated also. That was 

 the famous battle in which the confusion among the 

 British troops reached its highest pitch — to such a degree, 

 that they fired on each other. On this occasion, a 

 Catholic priest, the only one in the whole array, lost his 

 life, his long beard and turban causing the mistake. It is 

 known, too, that the Prince Waldemar of Prussia was in 

 the English ranks as a volunteer, and distinguished him- 

 self by his courage and calmness. Although he luckily 

 escaped the peril, he was much afflicted by the sad 

 accident of seeing his dear friend and travelling com- 

 panion. Doctor Hofraeister, fall by his side, having beea 

 killed by a shot from the Sikh camp. 



On the loth of February, 1846, the battle of Sobraon 

 took place, which decided the fate of the country. Teja 

 Sing, the traitor, took to his heels, and, on passing the 

 Sutlej, he ordered the bridge to be broken down, leaving 

 the greater part of his troops behind in a helpless state. 

 The betrayed soldiers cried, with their hands folded and 

 grass in their mouths, making themselves emblems of 

 their holy animals, the cattle. It is said, that some of 

 them exclaimed : " We suffer only the just reward 

 for our sins ; we did not deserve any better fate, for there, 

 beyond the river, is the land where we killed our gooroo 

 with his cows." Major G. C. Smyth, in his history, says 

 very truly concerning the attack on the gooroo : — "One of 

 the first victims was the holy Bai, one of whose legs was 

 nearly knocked off by a cannon ball. Utter Sing and 

 Cashmere Sing, with some other sirdars, fell in the conflict 

 which ensued ; and numbers of their people were drowned 

 in the river in attempicg to escape. The Sikhs lost ali their 

 reverence for their gooroo, the sight of the rich plunder 

 which his camp afforded being a temptation too strong for 

 their piety. Their only object now was to secure, every man 

 for himself, as much of the booty as he could ; but for 

 this they had to fight hard. When the struggle was over, 

 the Baba was found breathing his last, in exclamations 



