Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/71

 HAR for

not a man, friend

or foe,

63

was even wounded.

Sher Khan gained a Not a cannon was

great victory the Chaghatais suffered a ruinous defeat. fired, not a gun the artillery was totally useless.



"

When

the Chaghatais took to flight the distance from the field of battle might be about a farsang. Before a man was wounded, the whole army, amirs, bah^durs, and common meiij fled, broken and dismayed, to the banks of the Ganges. The enemy's army followed and overtook them. The Chaghatais not having time to take off their horse armour, or their own cuirasses, plunged, accoutred as they were, into the stream. Its breadth might be about five bow shots. Many amirs to the banks of the river

of illustrious name perished, and all from want of concert and controlEvery one went, or came at his own will. When we emerged from the river on the other bank, a monarch, who at noon had seventeen thousand artisans in his establishments, was mounted upon a wretched spavined horse, with both hishead and feet bare. Permanence belongs to God alone, the King of Kings. The author had nearly a thousand persons, retainers and servants, of whom only sixty escaped out of the river, all the rest were

drowned.

From

this instance the general loss

may

be estimated.

When

he reached the Ganges he found an old elephant and mounted into the hauda, where he found a eunuch of his household named Kdfur. He ordered the driver to cross the river, but the man told him that the animal was quite unequal to it, and would be drowned. Kafur hinted to the Emperor that the man wished to carry over the elephant to the Afghans, and that it was better to put him to death that he would undertake to guide the animal. On this Humdydn drew his sword and struck the driver, who fell wounded into the water. The eunuch then stepped down on As they gained the banks, the elephant's neck and directed him across. which were very steep, the Emperor found it difficult to mount them, when a soldier who had just gained the shore, presenting his hand to the Emperor, drew him up. Humayun asked his deliverer's name, and was answered Shams-ud-din Muhammad of Ghazni, in the service of Mirza Kamran. The Emperor made him high promises. At this moment he was recognized by Makhdum Beg, one of the Kamran's nobles, who came forward and presented his own horse. Shams-ud-din afterwards became one of the most distinguished noblemen of the empire, was made Khan Azam, and was the atkeh or foster-father of Akbar, in those days a connection of no small

importance."

A more extraordinary battle never was fought. The mass of the Mughals had nothing to expect but victory or death the Ganges deep, rapid, and swarming with crocodiles, also now swollen by the melting snows lay behind them. No quarter was to be expected from their treacherous foes, The men who lost no flight was possible through a hostile country. Chaunsa were rash and vain-glorious, but those who lost Bilgram were such cowards and fools as the world has seldom seen. Men wearing heavy cuirasses expected to swim the Ganges in the end of May, to escape on foot from the Pathan cavalry, or to meet with mercy from Sher Shah. They had deserted from the line before the battle, not to join the enemy, for even policy could not overcome Sher Shah's hatred of the Turks, but simply to look after their estates, and hide them from the storm of wars.

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