They made but little way; one of the gun-camels fell lame, the guides disappeared, and they began to despair of reaching the ferry in time, when suddenly there was a challenge and they know they were too late.

The sepoys had succeeded in crossing the river and were bivouacking immediately in front of them.
It was not a pleasant position, but it had to be made the best of; and both the civilian and the soldier agreed that their only chance was to fight.

Williams opened fire with his Infantry, and Ricketts took command of the guns.

At the first discharge the horses bolted with the limber, and never appeared again; almost at the same moment Williams fell, shot through the body.

Ricketts continued the fight until his ammunition was completely expended, when he was reluctantly obliged to retire to a village in the neighbourhood, but not until he had killed, as he afterwards discovered, about fifty of the enemy.
Ricketts returned to Ludhiana early the next morning, and later in the day the mutineers passed through the city.