least; but there is some reason to believe that the rapid firing had nearly exhausted the ammunition before half that time had elapsed, and it was once more to be proved that the British Infantry were not to remain mute spectators of a battle. 'Notwithstanding,' wrote the Commander-in-Chief, 'the formidable calibre of our guns, mortars, and howitzers, and the admirable way in which they were served, and aided by a rocket battery, it would have been visionary to expect that they could have silenced the fire of seventy pieces behind well-constructed batteries of earth, planks, and fascines, or dislodge troops covered either by redoubts or epaulements or within a treble line of trenches.'" The utmost ingenuity of the Sikhs and their European advisers had been exerted to render the works at Sobraon vastly superior to those at Ferozeshah. They had aimed at absolute impregnability, and a French officer assured Tej Singh that it was utterly impossible for the British to make good their entrance. But it may be said they reckoned without the small host opposing them. The British were now about to try with the musket and the bayonet. At nine o'clock, Brigadier Stacey's brigade, supported on either flank by Captain Horford's and Fordyce's batteries, and Lieutenant-Colonel Lane's troop of horse artillery, moved to the attack in admirable order. The infantry and guns aided each other correlatively. The former marched steadily on in line, which they halted only to correct when necessary, while the latter took up successive positions at the gallop, until at length they were within three hundred yards of the heavy batteries of the Sikhs. But notwithstanding the regularity and coolness, and the scientific character of the assault, which Brigadier Wilkinson well supported, so hot was the fire of cannon and musketry kept up by the Khalsa troops that it seemed for some moments impossible that the entrenchments could be won under it. This fire was all the more formidable from the fact that the Sikhs employed zumburuks--guns mounted on camels and carrying pound shot. There was a temporary check or pause, but, soon, persevering gallantry triumphed, and the whole army had the satisfaction of seeing Brigadier Stacey's gallant soldiers driving the Sikhs in confusion before them within the area of their encampment. Every impediment was cleared, the entrenchments were passed, and our matchless infantry stood erect and compact within the Sikh camp. Said the Commander-in-Chief: "Her Majesty's 10th, 53rd, and 80th Regiments, with the 33rd, 43rd, 59th, and 63rd Native Infantry, moving at a firm and steady pace, never fired a shot until they had passed the barriers opposed to them--a forbearance much to be commended, and most worthy of constant imitation, to which may be attributed the success of their first effort, and the small loss they sustained."