Page:History of India Vol 4.djvu/302

252 lery, took up his quarters in this very formidable position.

When the basis of the enemy's power had been overthrown at Panipat, and the surface of the plain had been relieved of the insolent foe, the triumphant champions of the victorious army proceeded eagerly to pillage the Maratha camp, and succeeded in gaining possession of an unlimited quantity of silver and jewels, five hundred enormous elephants, fifty thousand horses, one thousand camels, and two hundred thousand bullocks, with a vast amount of goods and chattels, and a countless assortment of camp equipage. Nearly thirty thousand labourers, too, who drew their origin from the Deccan, fell into captivity. Towards evening the Abdali Shah went out to look at the bodies of the slain, and found great heaps of corpses, and running streams produced by the flood of gore. Thirty-two mounds of slain were counted, and the ditch, protected by artillery, of such immense length that it could contain several hundred thousand of human beings, besides cattle and baggage, was completely filled with dead bodies.

Rao Kashi Nath, on seeing Jankuji, who was a youth of twenty, with a handsome countenance, and at that time had his wounded hand hanging in a sling from his neck, became deeply grieved, and the tears started from his eyes. Jankuji raised his head and exclaimed: "It is better to die with one's friends than to live among one's enemies."

The Nawab, in unison with Shah Wali Khan, solic-