How long he remained so he never knew. Those about him thought he had been killed. When he returned to his senses, he found himself on the back of one of his Gurkhás. He was very weak, but he had still strength enough to send for Captain Lawrence, and to direct him to take command, and to support the right. The delay, however, had been very injurious, and the disorder was increased by the fact that Captain Muter, seeing Reid fall, and regarding Lawrence in the light of a political officer, had assumed command of the portion of the column with which he was serving. By the time that Lawrence had asserted his authority success had become impossible. He withdrew his men, therefore, leisurely and in good order, on the batteries behind Hindu Ráo's house. The attack on the Idgar, made by the Jammú troops alone, was still more unfortunate. They were not only repulsed, but lost four guns.
The repulse of the fourth column added greatly to the difficulties of the other three. To these I must return.
I left the first and second columns victorious inside the breach. Nicholson at once massed his men on the square of the main-guard, and turning to the right, pushed on along the foot of the walls towards the Láhor gate, whence a galling fire was being kept up on his men. Beyond the Kábul gate, which, as we have seen, had been occupied by the second column, he hoped to feel the support of the fourth column. But, as just related, the attack of that column had failed, and it was this failure which rendered his advance difficult and dangerous.
To reach the Láhor gate Nicholson had to push on under the fire of the Burn bastion, then to force his way through a long lane, every building in which was manned by sharpshooters — the further end of it commanded by two brass guns, one about 160 yards from its opening,
