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 PANIPAT AGAIN A BATTLE - GKOUND 253 or a hundred and fifty men to make a sortie. Many of the troops were in great tremor and alarm. Now, although trepidation and fear are always unbecoming, since whatsoever Almighty God has decreed from all eternity cannot be reversed, I could not wholly blame them, for they had come two or three months' journey from their own country and were about to battle with strange people, whose very language they did not under- stand, and who did not understand ours. The army of the enemy was estimated at one hun- dred thousand, while the elephants of the emperor and of his officers were said to be nearly one thousand. He possessed the accumulated treasures of his father and grandfather ready for use in current coin. In situ- ations similar to that in which the enemy now were, it is customary in Hindustan to expend sums of money in collecting troops who engage to serve for hire. Had Ibrahim chosen to adopt this plan, he might have engaged one or two hundred thousand more troops, but he had not the heart to satisfy even his own army, and would not part with any of his treasure. Indeed, how was it possible that he should satisfy his troops, when he was himself miserly to the last degree, and avaricious beyond measure in accumulating pelf? He was a young man of no experience; he was negli- gent in all his movements; he marched without order, retired or halted without plan, and engaged in battle without foresight. While the troops were fortifying their position in Panipat and its vicinity with guns, branches of trees, and ditches, Mohammad Sarban said