Nassyr-djung, second son and successor of Nizam-el-mulk, having been sent for this year by the Emperor, had advanced to the banks of the Nerbedda with about seventy or eighty thousand horse, all old troops. But as the Emperor did not like his coming so well accompanied, he wrote him a letter with his own hand to inform him that he had altered his mind, and given him liberty to return; an order which the other complied with the more readily, as he had just been informed that his own sister’s son, Hedaïet muhi-eddin-qhan, surnamed Muzafer-djung, pretended to independence in Decan. He therefore returned, and soon arrived at his Capital, where he gave rise to some events which we reserve for the subsequent sheets, our intention being now to go on with the Vezir’s expedition.

The defeat of Nevol-ráy having made a deep impression on that Minister’s mind, at the very time he was himself marching to his assistance, he, on the month of Shaaban of the year 1163, returned to the Capital, and took a fresh leave of the Emperor; on which occasion Issac-qhan, and Mir-baca, son to the late Camer-eddin-qhan, were ordered to attend him with the Imperial troops. As the Vezir was setting out, he was complimented by the Emperor with a sabre, a buckler, and a coat of mail, together with a variety of other curious things, the Emperor being desirous of shewing him every kind of regard, and of raising his character in the opinion of mankind. Issac-qhan received a fateh-pitch and a sabre, but Mir-baca, a fateh-pitch only; and both were ordered to obey the Vezir’s orders. The latter setting out at the head of his troops, marched twenty cosses in three or four days, at which time he received further news about Nevol-räy and the country under his command. He was then at Barr, a large town inhabited only by Séyds. There he assembled his troops, and he also sent for my father, a nobleman, of whom he had made a friend, and whom he had appointed to the command of Pani-p8t and Son-poot. Having spent about a month in the several seats round Barr, he found himself at the head of seventy thousand horse; but before his departure there happened a strange event, of which the by-standers drew a bad omen for his expedition.

On the eighteenth of Ramazan, a camel-driver belonging to a Moghul, chanced to cut down a tree which grew at the door of one Enäiet-qhan, a man in the Vezir’s service. The latter trusting to his master’s high power, seized the driver and chas­tised him as he deserved. On this the other camel-drivers assembled in a body, and went to complain to the Moghul, who was a Commander of a body of horse in the army. The Moghul sent his people to fetch Enäiet-qhan. On which a multitude of horse and foot ran to Enäiet-qhan’s house, and some one who knew nothing of the quarrel, having chanced to say, on looking at those armed men, that an order had come for sacking the town, this word seemed to be taken up as a signal for a general plunder. All the Moghul officers of the camp with their country­men, The Town of Barr, wholly inhabited by Séyds, is sacked by the Vezir’s Moghul­troops. got up in an instant, it being in the afternoon, and fell like so many incarnated devils on the inhabitants of that unfortunate.town, which they ruined in a little time. They also killed Enäiet-qhan and his son, a youth of eighteen. On the first report of the tumult, the Vezir had dispatched Haïder-qhan with a number of Nissiqhchies to put a stop to the disorder, and to drive away the plunderers. But until this officer could arrive, and until the Nissiqhchies could make an impression upon them, all was over. Vast numbers of people were slain; and the con­sorts and children of so many Séyds, and of so many people of the better sort, who inhabited that town, were carried in captiv­ity, and experienced every usage which an unbridled soldiery could inflict. Women, children, furniture, everything was made plunder of. Haïder-qhan, after having exerted himself the whole night, was so lucky about the dawn of the day, as to assemble a number of captives, which he drew one by one from the tents of those accursed Moghuls, and he lodged them together in a set of tents which the Vezir had ordered to be pitched on purpose for them. This Minister himself had passed that whole night without going to bed. He was often observed to shed a flood of tears; nor could he be prevailed to eat anything the whole next day, which he spent in inquiring after so many matrons that had never set a foot out of a house, and were now in the hands of his soldiers. These he sent to their homes. Children of all ages, which those accursed men had concealed in fosses of their own digging, which they had covered with branches of tress and with turf, were found out, brought to the Vezir, and returned to their disconsolate friends. On beholding that universal desola­tion, one might have said that the last day of the world was come for that unfortunate town, and that it had undergone the Supreme Judge’s sentence. Nothing was heard but sobs and lamentations both there and all over the plain. The Vezir sent to the wretched inhabitants the head of the Moghul Commander.— But to what purpose? Past was what was past, and it was irremediable. Two days after that dreadful event, that Minister left Barr, and moved forwards; but people had already com­menced to say, that his expedition would not be attended with success, and they applied to him and to his men, these known verses of Saady:

“That smoke which you see does not rise from that Rue you are burning;

That smoke rises chiefly from the oppressed man’s heart.”

The two armies being in sight of each other, the Vezir sent for my father, who was now a chief Commander in Issac-qhan’s troops, and as he had long governed at Berhëily and Morad-abad, and was acquainted with the Rohillas and with their manner of waging war and of engaging an enemy, he requested to hear his advice and opinion. My father answered, “That these people dealt very much in ambuscades and feints. That their custom was to appear in great numbers, and after a slight combat to draw the enemy into some snare, when they turned about again, and faced him afresh. But that when­ever such a stratagem of theirs failed of success, it was their practice to turn their backs, and to fly in earnest, as soon as they were sensible of their being pursued slowly and with caution. His opinion was, therefore, that as the Moghuls were troops that could be relied upon, it would be proper that a body of three or four thousand of them should be ordered to advance a little before the Vezir’s elephant, but on foot, and with their muskets and wall-pieces ready, in order to have a body of Musketeers at hand, should the enemy make a shew of some ambuscade.” My noble father was yet speaking, when he was interrupted by Ismäil-beg-qhan, who tired of the length of the advice, said that to-morrow he would seize Ahmed-qhan’s wife and children, and bring them fast in a corner of his The Vezir, attacks the Rohillas. bow. To this my father said not a word. The next day, at day-break, the Vezir after performing his prayers, ordered his cannon to march in front and upon the wings, and having ranged his troops in the best order, he advanced with a slow pace. At about nine o’clock, the engagement commenced, by a dis­charge of cannon and muskets on both sides, and it continued for sometime in the same manner. Afterwards, Radjah S8r8dy-mull, the Djatt, who commanded at the right wing, and Ismäil-beg-qhan, who commanded at the left, advanced on a gallop, and charged so vigorously R8stem-qhan and some other Afghan Commanders, that they drew everywhere smoke from their breasts. Pursuing their point, they covered the ground with six or seven thousand of the best men amongst the Afghan horse. The rest retired reluctantly, but being vigorously pursued they fled at last, and dispersed. At this very time Radja Ber-chunder-mehender, who had outmarched both the Djatt Prince and Ismäil-beg-qhan, proved to be separated from his main, and out of the Vezir’s sight; and that Minister being occupied in perpet­ually sending to those two Generals, cannon, rockets and ammunition, had so thinned his own front, that it remained unfurnished with those necessaries, and nearly empty of troops. The sun was inclining to the west, and the army seemed parted asunder. The Minister no sooner observed this disorder, and no sooner saw that the Gentoo Prince was already out of sight, than he recollected what my father had told him, and he was casting his eyes about to discover something like an ambuscade, when at once Ahmed-qhan, with a choice body of Afghan horse, suddenly made his appearance, and the engagement, which seemed at an end, re-commenced with fury. Unluckily it happened, whether by a particular interposition of the Divine Providence or otherwise, that Camcar-qhan, the Fodjar of the suburbs of the Capital, who was nearest to the Vezir’s body of troops, unable to stand the violent fire of musketry and rockets inces­santly poured by a body of Afghan foot that now made their appearance, had turned about and fled. It is even reported that he was actually in concert with Ahmed-qhan-bangash, and that his flight was premeditated. Be it as it will, the Moghuls of the two wings finding themselves almost left alone, lost their wonted firmness, and this being observed by the Vezir, he imme­diately dispatched to their assistance both Mahmed-aaly-qhan, the Colonel, and Noor-el-hassen-qhan the Belgramite, with their troops. But there was such a quantity of loose elephants, and loose horses on the field of battle, that the passage seemed blocked up everywhere. Noor-el-hassen-qhan, however, opened his way through them, as did a little after, Abdol-neby, one of Mahmed-aaly-qhan’s slaves. This last troop amount d to about four hundred horse, and these two bodies cutting their way both through the loose horses and through the enemy, reached the Vezir’s troops, which were divided from their main. But as the Moghuls were already flying, the arrival of so brave a body proved of no avail, and these two officers, obliged to turn about, endeavoured to join the left wing. As they were advancing, they discovered behind them a body of two or three thousand foot, supported by a body of cavalry which were coming from the left, but which by their long faces and long beards seemed evidently to be enemies*. By this time most of the artillery had been sent to the support of the advanced troops, so that no firing was heard there from any cannon that might support those two brave bodies. For all that they cut their way back, and joined their friends, when facing about, they made a general discharge upon their pursuers, and stretched numbers of them upon the ground; but here too this succour proved of no avail. The Moghuls were already flying, and although the officers made a stand, their example was not followed by the others. The flight had become general in both wings, and few people cared to stand their ground. Amongst those that distinguished them­selves eminently, few were regretted so much as Haïder-qhan, brother-in-law to the Vezir. Like a famished lion, he with a small body, threw himself amongst the Afghans, and was observed to kill seven men with his own hand. He was slain at last, and he hastened to enjoy the parterres of tulip in the gardens of Eter­nity. N8r-el-hassen-qhan was wounded with a musket-ball, as was Mahmed-aaly-qhan. Mir-gh8lam-nebi, the Poet of Belgram, although much wounded, found means to escape; but Mir-azim-eddin-qhan, one of the bravest Séyds of Belgram, followed Haïder-qhan, and hastened with him into the regions of Eternity. And now the danger came close to the Vezir’s person. The Afghans surrounded his elephant, without knowing who it was. The driver fell down dead. Mirza-aaly-naky, tutor to Shudjah-ed-döwlah, the Vezir’s son, was struck by a musket-ball, as he was sitting behind the Vezir, and fell. The Vezir himself received a ball in his throat, and fell in a swoon within the häodah. Luckily The Vezir defeated and wounded. for him, that it was a war-haodah, and barded in brass; so that the Vezir having fallen within, was secured from further wounds, and nothing appeared of him but his head. Nor was his falling into a swoon of small use to save his life. The Afghans seeing the häodah empty, with only one dead man in it, left it and went forwards, where they met Issac-qhan. The latter cried aloud that he was the Vezir. He was well mounted, and at the head of a body that stuck close to him, charging his pursuers sabre in hand, and he made them give way, after which he retired slowly and with firmness. The whole army was retreating by this time, and all the Moghuls had lost their honour and character, when Noorel-hassen-qhan and Mahmed-aaly-qhan seeing the Vezir’s elephant unaccompanied, cut their way to it with a few followers, and found that the Vezir had recovered from his swoon. The Minister on recovering his senses, ordered the music to play in token of victory, to try whether such a stratagem would not recall the troops; but it answered no purpose. Find­ing that a panic had seized them all, he turned his elephant about, without having any one round his person save those two officers, and two or three hundred Moghuls and Hindostanies. After the Vezir’s retreat, my father, who followed at a distance, seeing the field of battle empty, stopped to bring up some cannon that seemed in tolerable order; and having exerted himself in calling together the dispersed people of the artillery, he arrived at night near the Vezir’s quarters, none having remained in that field of battle so long as himself; and it was midnight before he reached the Vezir’s tent. The latter having ordered Noor-el-hassen-qhan to enquire after some medicines for his wound, was in a little time served; but it became necessary to make use of some fire. In the morning the Vezir quitted Marher, where he had passed the night, and marched forwards without hardly any baggage or any of the sutlers and other followers of the army. The ungrateful Moghuls after having fled from the enemy, had attacked their friends, and plundered most of those useful people; the rest had been set upon by the peasants, and made away with. Still on his departure from Marher, he found himself at the head of something like an army, and he continued his journey until he arrived upon the banks of the Djumnah, over against old Delhi, which is commonly called Shah-djehan-abad, and where we shall leave him to see what use the Afghans made of their victory.