cavalry now opened upon the advancing Seik horse with terrible effect,
throwing them into such confusion as to prevent them from rapidly
reforming. At this moment the order was received for the Dragoons to
wheel into line and charge, and ere the Seiks had recovered, were among
them, and the flower of the enemy's cavalry had to give way before the
impetuous charge of our light Dragoons. There were more hand to hand
encounters in this affair than has been recorded in any other engagement
of the campaign. During the melee, one of the commanding General's
A.D.C.'s had a narrow escape. A powerful looking Seik rode at him, but
on coming within arm's length the staff officer's horse stumbled over
some dead or wounded men; the sword of the dusky warrior was raised to
give the blow, which must have proved fatal, and in another moment there
would have been a vacancy on the General's staff, but Arthur, who had
been hewing with might and main within a few yards of the spot, seeing
the imminent peril of his countryman, dashed up, shortening his sabre as
he did so, and, with a powerful thrust, sent it clean through the body
of the Seik; the blow intended for the head fell harmless on the plated
scales of the epaulet of the aide as he recovered himself in the saddle.

"Thanks, Carlton, my dear fellow, for this good service; I will not
forget it, should it ever come to my turn to assist you in any way," was
all that could be said in the hurry and excitement of the conflict, for
the tide of battle still rolled on. A two gun sheet battery which had
been committing great havoc on a column of infantry, was still throwing
grape and canister with murderous effect. These discharges had again and
again swept through the little party. The Seik gunners stood manfully to
their guns until the Infantry came within fifty yards of them. "Charge,
men, charge," shouted a very handsome officer of the Bombay Fusiliers,
"they cannot stand the bayonets of the old Toughs. Forward." The men
sprang to the charge, and about one hundred of the Fusiliers to the very