almost useless, and nearly resulted in a repulse. The Sikhs met the columns of the advancing British front to front, and inch by inch the British infantry made good its ground, until the first line gave way to fall back on the second. The British lost three hundred men in carrying the town of Barra Kalrá; and in the storming of Chota Kalrá, one half of the first brigade was killed or disabled, without counting the great loss of the horse artillery in aiding the assault. One troop was nearly annihilated.
Meanwhile Colonels Campbell and Douglas, commanding the left wing, kept carefully in line with the advance movement of the right, but in a manner much more cautious. They ordered their men to lie upon the ground when halted, and advancing by slow degrees they reached a point from which they could command the head of the Dwárah creek. In a few minutes the creek was cleared of the Sikh infantry, and the ground was occupied by Campbell, the loss of men being only trifling. This was the natural ending of the first part of the battle. The advance of the British had been made with success along the entire line. On the right two important positions had been won, while the enemy had been driven from the nullah, or dry rivulet, on which they were resting, by the operations of the left wing.
Lord Gough was confidently believing that the battle had been won, but such was far from being the case. The Sikhs, alert to observe a weak point or a false move of the enemy, quickly ascertained that the English, in swinging their left upon the right wing of the Sikhs to gain that ground, had left a great gap between their left and the centre. To rush in and make a passage through this gap was their opportunity, for their line of retreat was already seriously threatened. The Afghan cavalry had not only given way before a brave charge of the British,
