ad, unperceived by the English, reached the
northern end of the bridge just as a gap had been caused in the English
columns.

The thick fog of the morning had hidden the approach of the Russians
from the English outposts. The Russians at once occupied the bridge, and
so cut off the remainder of the English that were on the northern bank
from their main body that had already crossed the bridge. The commander
of the Russian advance guard was himself quite astounded at the success
that the fortune of war had thrown into his lap: had not the fog
rendered the scouting on both sides illusory, and had not chance allowed
him to fall in with this gap in the English columns, the chances would,
considering the narrowness of the road, have been much more favourable
to the English than for him, and the battle would probably have ended
with the defeat of his forces. As it was, General Ivanov, who had
crossed the Khyber Pass, came upon the English rearguard, and five
thousand men of the Anglo-Indian troops had to surrender after a short
struggle. Two thousand English and three thousand Mohammedans fell
into the hands of the Russians. As soon as the Mohammedan-Indians were
informed by the victors that they were fighting for the true faith
against the infidels, they went over without more ado to the Russian
side.

The commander at Attock refused to surrender the fortress, and trained
his guns upon the Russian columns; but, in consequence of the fog, the
batteries did not inflict much damage upon the Russians, who being now
in possession of the bridge continued their advance to the south.

But, however, before the march that had thus been so successfully begun
was continued, the Russian commander-in-chief collected, not far
from Attock, all the troops that had crossed the Hindu-Kush in small
detachments, and united them with the army corps advancing from
Afghanistan, so that he now disposed of an army of seventy thousand men.

It was a blood-stained road upon which this host travelled behind the
retreating English army. This was the road upon which Alexander the
Great in days of yore entered India. Here, at the beginning of the
sixteenth century, the Afghan sovereign Ibrahim Lodi had fought with the
Grand Mogul Baber; here, a few decades later, Mohammed Shah Adil, the
generallissimo of the Afghans, when at the head of fifty thousand horse,
five hundred elephants, and innumerable infantry, was defeated by the
youthful Grand Mogul Akba