The Abdaly Prince, having in this easy manner gained a great victory, and conquered two provinces, turned his views upon the very Capital of Hindostan. He had, in his campaign with Nadyr-shah, fully observed the weakness of the Empire, the imbecility of the Emperor, the inattention of his Ministers, and that spirit of independence which had crept among the Grandees. Being now unexpectedly so far advanced, he con­cluded that the expedition he had determined on within himself, would not prove a very difficult task. Full of these hopes, he commenced his march from Lahor, carrying with him Mahmed-taky-qhan, the Capon, who served both as his chief Counsellor and as his Generalissimo. Mahmed-shah, informed of this, resolved to oppose him; and he sent his son, Ahmed-shah, at the head of a numerous army, commanded by the Vezir and the principal Grandees of the Empire, such as Abool-mansoor-qhan, Radja Asiri-sing-seväi, son to Radja Djehi-sing, and some other Radjas of the Province of Adjmir, whether of the Rhator family or others; all of which commanded troops of their own tribes. It was in the year 1161 of the Hedjrah. The principal nobility of Hindostan were in that army, such as Zolficar-djung, Shir-djung, and Muäien-el-mulk, all three sons to the Vezir. The Vezir, in receiving his audience of leave from the Emperor, was particularly distinguished by that Prince, who taking from his own turbant a fateh-pitch*, and a nosegay of beaten gold, put them with his own hand on the Vezir’s head, and dis­missed him with exhortations to fight the enemies of his Crown valiantly. A fateh-pitch was likewise presented to every one of the other Lords and Generals. Zolficar-djung, elder son to the Vezir, was honoured with the office of third Paymaster-General, an office vacant since Emir-qhan’s death; and he was moreover entrusted with the care of the Imperial Prince’s per­son, over whom he was to watch as his tutor. By this promotion the office of fourth Paymaster became vacant, which was bestowed on Mahmed-issac-qhan. After these promotions the Imperial Prince marched at the head of his numerous army to Ser-hend, and advanced as far as the river Sutuludj, where he encamped on the ford. The-Abdaly-monarch, without minding the ford, marched above it by Lod-hiana, and arrived within Ser-hend; his army, by authentic accounts, not amounting to more than sixty-seven thousand horse. It was the thirteenth of the first Reby, in the year 1161. The town of Ser-hend was plundered and sacked, and every one found in arms was put to the sword. On this the Shah-zadah marched to the eneny; but on approach­ing a little nearer, that Prince, according to that riveted custom of the Hindians, who never think themselves a match for an army of foreigners, stopped short, and surrounded his army with an intrenchment and a ditch, within which he kept himself; and from the fifteenth of the first Reby until the twenty-sixth, nothing was to be seen but continual attacks and skirmishes, with great slaughter on both sides. The Abdaly had no artillery, but fortune brought him a convoy of provisions, cannon, rockets, and ammunition, which fell into his hands. He availed himself of this assistance to pour in a shower of balls within the intrenchment; insomuch that the Hindostany army, although very numerous, seemed to be besieged by the Abdalies and Kuzzel­bashes. The seventh day of this singular siege, it happened that the Vezir Camer-eddin-qhan, being about noon-day at his prayers*, a cannon-ball came and killed him on the spot. This accident discouraged the Hindoos who were in camp, to the number of twenty or thirty thousand, under the command of Asiri-sing, and some other Radjahs. With one common accord they despaired of the cause, and coming out of camp, they stretched the feet of trepidation on the boundless plain of despondency, and marched back to their homes. But this desertion, considerable and discouraging as it was, did not damp the courage of either the Shah-zadah’s, or of Abool-man­soor-qhan’s, or of Müaïen-el-mulk’s, or of the other sons of the late Vezir’s. They fought the enemy several times with an undaunted courage, and always with much slaughter on both sides, until the morning of the twenty-sixth, when the Abdaly-king, putting himself at the head of his troops, gave an assault to the Vezir’s quarter, but was vigorously repulsed by Müaïen-el-mulk, alias Mir-mannoo, the Vezir’s eldest son, who acquired a great deal of honour in that trying occasion. A body of Tooranians, commanded by Djanish-qhan, and some other officers, mindful of the many obligations which their nation owed to that family, fought with great vigour, and cheerfully shed their blood in their defence; and vast numbers of the Vezir’s troops became that day so much food to the scimitar, that devouring crocodile of the seas of slaughter and blood. The enemies pushing forwards, penetrated to the very quarter of the Shah-zadah’s, and a mighty loss, together with a great disgrace, was going to befall the Hindostanies, when they were timely assisted by a body of troops in good order sent by Abool-mansoor-qhan. That General ordered the remainder of his horse, mostly Moghuls, to alight; and putting himself at their head, he marched fiercely to the enemy, preceded by some small cannon, and a number of men, armed with rockets aad wall-pieces. He came in a very critical moment, and putting himself between Mir-mannoo and the Abdalies, he brought the latter to a stand; and here the engage­ment, taking a new vigour, became warm and bloody. The enemy already fatigued by the resistance made by the Shah-zada and Mir-mannoo, found themselves at once assaulted by a body of fresh troops, who marched in good order, and were pouring a storm of musket-bullets, cannon-balls, and rockets upon them. At this critical moment, some of the ammunition and rocket-carts, seized at Ser-hend, by some accident took fire. In an instant thousands and ten thousands of rockets and other arti­fices were at once in a blaze; and these flying in all directions throughout the Abdaly’s army, destroyed most of the enemy’s troops by heaps*. The rest fell into disorder and confusion; and Ahmed, after having made repeated efforts to remedy the accident, and to rally his dismayed troops, reluctantly turned his back to the field of battle, and fled where his bad fortune pointed, leaving the victory to the Hindostany Prince, and the greatest part of his army on that field of slaughter. He had sent in the evening a message to Abool-mansoor-qhan, the purport of which I could not learn; but the next morning he beat the General at day-break, and marched back by the high-road that leads to Cabool and Candahar.

Mahmed-shah, on being informed of so signal a victory, and how instrumental the Vezir’s three sons had been in it, especially the eldest, as well as how timely and vigorously they had been succoured by Abool-mansoor-qhan’s critical interposition, could not help giving way to his joy and satisfaction, although he was then upon his death-bed. He himself read the relation, and immediately bestowed the Governments of Lahor and Mooltan on Mir-mannoo, and at the same time he wrote pressing letters to his son, to Abool-mansoor-qhan, and to the other Lords, with orders to repair immediately to Court. With these letters came a Qhylaat, with which the Imperial Prince himself invested Mir-mannoo in the name of the Emperor, his father, giving him order at the same time to take possession of the two Governments con­ferred upon him. The Prince, after this ceremony, set out for the Capital without loss of time, as the Emperor was growing worse and worse, and signs of an approaching gangrene were making their appearance. The Monarch beheld death advancing step after step, and letters after letters arrived daily demanding both his son and Abool-mansoor-qhan. Nor did these two noble per­sons give themselves any rest; they were already arrived at Pani-Poot*, in the neighbourhood of the Capital, when intelligence came that the Emperor was no more. He died the twenty-seventh of the second Reby, in the beginning of the thirty-first year of his reign, which answers to the year 1161 of the Hedjrah. But in confequence of a consultation between Issac-qhan and Djavid-qhan the eunuch, and some other Lords, to which the Empress Maleka-zemani gave her consent, his death was kept secret; so that his body, remaining some days above ground, became offensive, as had already happened to Emir-qhan’s body, as if to prove that holy sentence of the Coran, “So hast thou done, so shalt thou find.” Abool-mansoor-qhan, being repeatedly informed of all this, passed secretly with the Shah-zadah three days in mourning; and the fourth day he made choice of a favourable moment to erect a canopy, and to whirl several times round and over the Prince’s head a chatry or umbrella*, which he had run up in haste for the occasion; after which he presented his nuzur by way of making his homage, prayed for his pros­perity, and wished him along reign. The new Emperor, after this ceremony, marched to the Capital with great pomp and magnifi­cence. Being arrived at Shaleh-mar, an Imperial seat in the neighbourhood of the Capital, he received the applause and respects of all the Ministers of State and all the Grandees of the Empire, who proclaimed him with a common voice. After this ceremony, the body of Mahmed-shah was brought out of the Haram-sera, or sanctuary, and in the middle of a pompous cortege, was carried upon the shoulders of all the Grandees, to the Monument of Shah-nizam-eddin, where it was buried in a mausoleum, close to that which the Prince’s mother had erected for herself in her life-time. The new Emperor, on the seventh of Djemady, made his entry into the Capital, mounted upon a moving throne; and from thence, he went to reside in the citadel. Five days after, it being on a Friday, he repaired to the great Mosque, where having heard the Qhootbah pronounced in his name with other appreciations usual on such a solemnity, he returned to his Palace. In this same month both Moo??teza-qhan and Moorid-qhan departed their lives.