It is not always that the best laid plans
succeed without a hitch, but the fortune of war was on this occasion
entirely kind to the British cause, and the bold game played by subadar
Rasul Khan and his men reaped a splendid reward; the capture of a
formidable fortress, seventy guns, and a regiment of infantry, with
little or no loss.
When, as dawn grew stronger, the British commander strained his anxious
eyes towards the fort, to his immense relief friendly signals welcomed
him, and as the sun rose the gentle breeze flung to the dusty haze the
Union Jack, which ever since that day has floated from the ramparts of
the fort of Gorindghar at Amritsar.
It may not be without interest, as illustrating the liberality with
which soldiers in those days were treated, to mention that, besides the
official thanks of the British Government, Rasul Khan received a robe of
honour, a gun, a brace of pistols, and five hundred rupees, each
havildar and naik fifty rupees, and each sepoy, including the
"prisoners," eleven rupees. Nor may it be inappropriate to mention that
Rasul Khan was a brother of that same ressaldar Fatteh Khan, who only
the month before with a handful of the Guides' cavalry had scattered as
chaff before the wind the flower of Diwan Mulraj's horsemen, and chased
them into the gates of Mooltan.
CHAPTER IV
ON THE FRONTIER IN THE 'FIFTIES.
The Guides were now two years old, and, as an outward and visible sign
that they had won their spurs, they were by the orders of the Government
considerably augmented.
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