The sluggish waters of the Sutlej, clogged with human carcases, swelled and foamed over wounded and unwounded, locked in the struggling embrace of mortal peril, and bore them slowly onwards to destruction, making room for succeeding crowds destined to share a similar fate. The scattered remnants of the battalions which had defended the entrenchments of Sobraon with such gallantry and resolution, landing on the opposite shore, fled wildly from the awful scene of carnage; and half a winter's day served to destroy for ever those daring and organized battalions, to accomplish whose discipline and efficiency had occupied the lifetime, and employed unceasingly the energies of the old Lion of the Punjaub. Had the master and founder of the Sikh military power been spared, or his sagacity and political wisdom been inherited by any of his successors, this day of death would have been averted, or at least deferred to a succeeding generation. But the God of Christians, Sikh, and Mahomedans, ordained it; and let the cavillers at our day's labour turn over the pages of the Old Testament, and study the military commission of Joshua, before they exclaim against the catastrophe of Sobraon. Sixty-seven pieces of cannon were abandoned by the enemy in their entrenchments, and round every gun in the batteries lay the golundauze, who had sworn to conquer or die, and had fulfilled their oath. Every trench was filled to the brim with Sikh corpses, and the blood-stained area of the entrenchments told a fearful tale of massacre; but whilst that overgrown assemblage of lawless soldiery continued in existence, the Punjaub or the British frontier could entertain no hope of permanent security. Every Sikh carcase which floated on the Sutlej, or lay stiffening on the gory field of Sobraon, was one obstacle removed to the re-establishment of order and good government; and with such an object in view, the destruction of the Sikh army became a more imperative duty than the removal of any noxious or venomous animal which might lie in the path we are about to pursue. The enemy's cavalry, and a few battalions of infantry, which had been posted in a threatening attitude at the fords of Hureeka, when the result of the day became apparent, opened a harmless cannonade, from their nine pounder battery, on the British Cavalry Brigade (which had been placed to check any diversion in that quarter), and then departed, taking the route leading towards Lahore. Before the sun had reached the horizon, not a vestige of that mighty host which had so long insulted our north-western frontier was to be seen, save a few dusky tents on the verge of the plain, and the lifeless bodies lying in the trenches of Sobraon, the lawful inheritance of the vulture and jackals.