d fallen on the village, slain the Sikhs to
a man, burnt the place to the ground, and carried off a quantity of
plunder, including an ammunition wagon and several camel-loads of
small-arm cartridges.

At the sight of the rebel infantry in their red coats, Major Coke
unlimbered the guns and brought them into action. They were only light
field-pieces, and did little execution among the enemy, who, instead of
standing their ground and making use of their overwhelming numbers, fell
into a panic when the guns came within six hundred yards of them, and
bolted, flinging away their shoes, belts and other impedimenta, in their
mad haste to get away.

Then Hodson gave his eager men the word to charge. They swept down upon
the disordered ranks of the rebels, and were soon engaged hand to hand
with their cavalry. Shouting their war-cry "Wah-hah!" the Guides cut
their way through them, smiting right and left with their swords.

Hodson himself was in the thick of the fray, and escaped hurt as by a
miracle. His gallant horse, Feroza, was slashed with sabre cuts; his
bridle was severed, and a piece of his glove was shorn off. The men were
no whit behind their leader. Ahmed unhorsed one man with his lance, and
recovered from the stroke just in time to ward off a desperate thrust
from a sabre. The trooper at his side fell from his horse with a mortal
wound in his neck; several of the horses were so badly wounded that they
had to be killed. But the enemy would not stand, and the Guides' losses
were only the one man killed and six wounded.

So desperate was the rebels' flight that they left behind them all their
baggage and the spoil of their night's work at Alipur. Hodson would fain
have pursued them to the very walls of Delhi, but the horses were so
fatigued by their march over the heavy ground that they were incapable
of further efforts. Major Coke's guns, moreover, sank so deep into the
mud that they could scarcely be moved. The rebels were on higher ground,
and the Guides howled with disappointment when they saw them drawing
their guns away in safety. They came up with the tail-end of the
infantry ere the morning was past, and inflicted heavy loss upon them,
so that Bakht Khan, who had led the column in person, had little
satisfaction in his night's adventure. All that his five thousand men
had accomplished was the destruction of a small village, and the capture
of plunder which they were now forced to leave behind them on the fiel