Page:Aurangzíb and the Decay of the Mughal Empire.djvu/198

192 So vast a host was like a plague of locusts in a country: it devoured everything; and though at times it was richly provisioned, at others the Maráthás cut off communications with the base of supplies in the north, and a famine speedily ensued.

The effeminacy of the Mughal soldiers was encouraged by the dilatory tactics of their generals. The best of all Aurangzíb's officers, Zú-l-Fikár, held treasonable parley with the enemy and intentionally delayed a siege, in the expectation that the aged Emperor would die at any moment and leave him in command of the troops. Such generals and such soldiers were no match for the hardy Maráthás, who were inspired to a man with a burning desire to extirpate the Musalmáns and plunder everything they possessed. The Mughals had numbers and weight; in a pitched battle they were almost always successful, and their siegos, skilfully conducted, were invariably crowned with the capture of the fort. But those forts were innumerable; and each demanded months of labour before it would surrender; and in an Indian climate there are not many consecutive months in which siege operations can be carried on without severe hardships. We constantly hear of marches during the height of the rains, the Emperor loading the way in his uncomplaining stoical fashion, and many of the nobles trudging on foot through the mud. In a single campaign no less than 4000 miles