Page:Ranjit Singh (Griffin).djvu/158

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
152
RANJÍT SINGH

population has enormously increased, and the cultivated area in a still greater ratio. And if England were to withdraw her protecting hand, if she were to proclaim the Pax Britannica at an end and retire from India in a cowardly denial of her duties and her rights, is there any one of knowledge who doubts that in a very short time anarchy would return once more; that Sikhs, Maráthás, and Afgháns would again be fighting à outrance; that the children would again be tossed on the sword and spear-points of invaders, and the Punjab maidens again become the prey of the ravisher, while the light of flaming villages would nightly illumine the ancient walls of Delhi and Lahore?