Page:Aurangzíb and the Decay of the Mughal Empire.djvu/49

Rh pretentions of Dárá, had ordered his troops merely to dispute the passage of the river, not to cross to the attack. The enemy was thus allowed two precious days in which to bring up his entire forces, and when Murád-Bakhsh at length rode over the ford, under a withering storm of arrows and javelins, the whole strength of the Deccan followed, and crashed into the royal army with an overwhelming shock. Kásim Khán and his Muhammadans fled from the field like traitors or politicians. The Rájputs fought desperately, till only 600 remained out of their 8000 men. The wounded remnant sadly followed their Rája back to his desert fastness in Márwár. There he was received with bitter scorn. His high-mettled wife shut the castle gates in his face, saying that a man so dishonoured should not enter her walls. 'I disown him as my husband: these eyes can never again behold him. If he could not vanquish, he should die.' This was the true Rájput spirit, and the fact that the princess eventually became reconciled to her husband only proves that, though a daughter of the proud house of Chitór, she was, after all, a woman.

The Mughal capital was in an uproar. All sorts of plans were devised and rejected. Sháh-Jahán wished to go himself at the head of his army to confront the insurgents, and had he done so the issue might have been different; for his sons would hardly have ventured to attack him, lest their own troops should desert them for the standard of their revered Emperor. But Dárá was full of rage at the defeat of Jaswant