“THIRTY-FIRST REGIMENT.--This gallant old corps seems to have received more than its share of hard knocks, in the last four glorious battles it was engaged in. Lieut.-Colonel Spence who commanded in all four actions, seems to have had a charmed life, having escaped in a most astonishing way. He had two horses killed under him; balls through his cap and scabbard; his sword broken in his hand by grape-shot; and at Sobraon, a Sikh, who was lying apparently dead in the trenches, jumped up when he saw the Colonel’s head turned, and rushed at him to cut him down, which was only prevented by a private who called the Colonel’s attention to his danger, and afterwards bayoneted the Sikh, the Colonel’s sword having broken in the encounter.” The glorious _Victory of Sobraon_ was decisive: the invaders were repelled; their army, discomfited, retreated sullenly from the field; the whole of their artillery, their camp, warlike stores, and baggage fell into the hands of the victors; the enemy retired over their bridge, which, from the weight and pressure of the immense mass of the defeated troops passing over it, gave way; the Sikhs were precipitated into the water; the whole river was filled with the confused bodies of the flying enemy, the British artillery playing on them with round and grape-shot; the stream was choked up with the dead and dying: the carnage was frightful! The enemy never attempted to rally. With the loss of his artillery, on which all his confidence was placed, his spirit was broken, and all his hopes of successfully resisting the British troops vanished: his pride was humbled: the last and final struggle was over; the battle was ended, and the power of the haughty and turbulent Sikhs received a blow on the sanguinary field of _Sobraon_ from which it could not recover: the city of _Lahore_ was at the mercy of the conquerors. Preparations were now made for the advance of the British army into the Punjaub; the engineer department constructed a pontoon-bridge, and the whole British force, with its artillery, passed the Sutlej, and encamped on the opposite side, in the territory of the Sikhs: the enemy, disheartened and dismayed by their late defeats offered no opposition, retiring as the British army advanced. The distance from the river Sutlej to the capital of the Sikhs is less than fifty miles; the march to it was performed without opposition, and without difficulty: the power of the Sikhs was prostrate; their government sent chiefs of high rank as ambassadors to the British camp, to offer terms of submission to the Governor-General, suing for peace on whatever terms the conquerors might please to dictate.