against the Mahrattas turned the fortune of the day by personal valour, drawing her sword and addressing her soldiers: "I have resolved not to retreat. It would be a shame for the Sikh nation if at this moment they left a woman, the sister of their sovereign, to be slain by their enemies." The British Government, by throwing its mantle over these states in 1809, saved them from the rapacity and absorbing power of Ranjit Singh; and they have ever since proved their gratitude by conspicuous attachment to their suzerain, markedly so in the darkest days of the great military revolt in 1857.
Though the Maharaja felt this check to his ambition, he soon brought his mind to see the great advantage which this treaty secured him. The Sutlej was a well-marked geographical as well as political frontier. He fully trusted the British. He knew he was safe in that quarter, so was now free to direct his whole force in other directions where he had yet many enemies to over-
