Page:History of India Vol 5.djvu/250

 208 TIMUR'S ACCOUNT OF HIS INVASION guard, and when they perceived that Sultan Mahmud's forces were approaching, they moved off to the right, and getting secretly behind the enemy's advance-guard as it came on unsuspecting, they rushed from their ambush, and falling upon the foe in the rear, sword in hand, they scattered them as hungry lions scatter a flock of sheep, and killed six hundred of them in this single charge. Prince Pir Mohammad Jahangir, who commanded the right wing, moved his own forces forward, and with Amir Sulaiman Shah and his regi- ments of brave cavalry attacked the left wing of the enemy, which was commanded by Taghi Khan, and poured a shower of arrows upon it, so that my brave soldiers, pressing like furious elephants upon this part of the enemy's host, compelled it to take refuge in flight. The left wing of my army, under Prince Sultan Husain, Amir Jahan Shah, Amir Ghiyas-ad-din, and other amirs, bravely attacked the enemy's right wing, which was commanded by Malik Mu'in-ad-din and Malik Hadi. They so pressed it with the trenchant sword and piercing arrows that they compelled the enemy to break and fly. Jahan Shah pursued them, and attacked them again and again until they reached the gates of the city of Delhi. Simultaneously, Sultan Mahmud with Mallu Khan and the army of the centre, with its officers and sol- diers more numerous than ants or locusts, and with its strong war elephants, made an attack upon my centre, where Prince Rustam, Amir Shaikh Nur-ad-din,