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174
THE SIKHS.

tion, moved out with all his force and cleverly manœuvred to bring on an action at once on ground of his own choosing, which afforded little opportunity for cavalry, and where with his superior numbers he could overlap the flanks of his enemy. After an hour's artillery duel a general advance of the British line was made in the afternoon. Lord Gough again took the bull by the horns, and, as was expressed on a previous occasion, found it "all horns." The dense patches of thorny bush which screened the Sikhs broke the ordered advance of brigades, and the battle devolved into a series of detached combats—regiments singly forcing their way through the jungle to the open spaces, where they suddenly found themselves face to face with the enemy's guns and infantry massed by them. Then followed the volley, the cheer, the run upon the cannon's mouth, and fierce hand-to-hand fighting: gunners were bayonetted serving their guns to the last, and their infantry, in many cases after de-