Chapter X

Heads glittering with polished gold, divided by the blade, drop
incessantly; and mangled bodies, wallowing in their gore, lay like
fragments of mighty rocks, sparkling with gems and precious ores.
Millions of sighs and groans arise on every side; and the sun is
overcast with blood, as they clash their arms, and wound each other
with their dreadful instruments of destruction.

MAHABHARAT.

The scouts sent out by Chusero, rapidly returned on the heels of each other, announcing daily the nearer and nearer approach of the imperial army. The Sutledge was full to the margin, and as all the bridges had been broken down, and the ferry-boats destroyed, the insurgents relied upon the position they had taken up as one not easy to be reduced. Their line was compact, and skilfully arranged. Their strength in artillery was limited, but it was disposed of to the greatest advantage. Fifty heavy pieces of cannon were chained together, to guard that part of the river which offered the most favourable chances of passage to the enemy. The left wing, composed of the Cashmere auxiliaries under Afkun, was disposed somewhat higher up the river, armed with spears, slings, and bows. The Rajaputs under Man-Singh watched the passages of the river on the right; while the troops commanded by Hussein, partly composed of matchlockmen, partly of spearmen and cavalry, took their station in the centre, behind the artillery. Companies of elephants, bearing men armed with matchlocks and heavy javelins, were distributed through the three divisions of the army, and the prince, with a small reserve of cavalry, took his post upon an eminence, commanding a view of the river and of the plains beyond it to a considerable distance. They were in all sixty thousand fighting men.

Bochari, accurately informed of the disposition of the insurgent forces, moved forward with great caution towards the higher banks of the Sutledge, above the station occupied by Afkun, expecting that he might be able to ford it in that direction, and so turn the left flank of the enemy. When, by the first light of the sun, he beheld the glistening line of the river, he ordered a strong body of cavalry, assisted by a company of the light artillery, to move rapidly in column, and dashing headlong through the Sutledge to establish themselves if possible on the farther bank. The remainder of the light artillery he directed to open a fire upon Afkun’s division.

Chusero, who was mounted on his swift-paced elephant, at an early hour speedily perceived in the distance the thread-like columns hastening across the plain. After dispatching messengers along the line, to announce the presence of the enemy, and the movement they had made, he proceeded with his reserve to the assistance of Afkun, who was already on the alert. The banks of the Sutledge were high and precipitous in the direction aimed at by Bochari, and the current deep and extremely rapid. Nevertheless, before Chusero could reach the spot, the foremost horses of the foe were plunged in the stream, and ascending the opposite bank. He proceeded to attack them as fast as his troops could come up, but such was the vigour of the onset of his enemies, owing to the superior strength of their horses, that they gained upon him until Afkun, seeing what was taking place, mounting his charger, and calling upon a troop of his cavalry to follow him, rushed into the river, which he speedily crossed. Despising the efforts of the light artillery opposed to him, he directed his march at once against the column of cavalry commanded by Bochari, and succeeding in breaking their line, cut them off from those who had already advanced into the stream. Chusero being, in the mean time, strongly reinforced, entered into the conflict with spirit, and drove back the tide of assailants. Their retreat was attended with great confusion, as many of their comrades were still contending against the rapidity of the current.

Chusero followed up his advantage, driving the enemy before him, sword in hand, who, perceiving that they were separated from their comrades, turned the heads of their horses down the current. The bank occupied by the insurgents was immediately lined by bowmen; they poured clouds of arrows upon the fugitives, most of whom perished in the river. Afkun, having accomplished his object, retreated in good order to his former position.

The imperial troops now advanced thickly into the plain, appearing in the distance like an enormous flight of locusts. Jehangire, apprized of the failure of Bochari’s first attempt to turn the left flank of the insurgents, ordered all his artillery in front. As the drivers took their ground in succession, the gunners opened their fire, and the line becoming every moment more lengthened, the thunder of the field augmented with terrific energy. It was answered from the hostile ranks in compact volleys, which were discharged with great effect, the crowd of balls issuing from the chained artillery, acting like the mower’s scythe, and causing tremendous gaps in the masses of the advancing cavalry and infantry on the imperial side.

The theatre of battle on either side of the Sutledge was by noon enveloped in a dense cloud of smoke, illumined only near the guns by the flashes of fire which burst from them as they hurled forth their weapons of death. The ardour of the Rajaputs under Man-Singh could not be restrained. Taking advantage of the obscurity which hung over them, they crossed the river in one body, and scouring the plain, hewed down cavalry, infantry, camels, every thing with which they came in contact. Then returning to their position they rested awhile, until their fearless commander again gave the word for another experiment of the same perilous nature. Afkun, more prudent, remained within the position entrusted to his keeping, which he defended with great valour against the repeated efforts of the imperialists to effect a passage in that direction. Hussein, being in the centre, had as yet no opportunity of distinguishing himself, his front being covered by the artillery, whose fire continued to be most destructive. Chusero might be seen during the thickest of the fight in all parts of the field, exposing his person in the most fearless manner, encouraging and inspiring his men by the hopes of success which he declared were brightening every where in his favour.

Bochari observing the rashness with which Man-Singh frequently advanced from his post to carry the battle to the imperial side of the river, directed a numerous division of cavalry to arrange themselves behind an eminence, below that part of the river occupied by the Rajaputs, with orders to wait there until they were informed that the Rajaputs had again crossed the river, and then to make a bold effort to seize upon the position of the enemy. In the mean time he stationed another body of cavalry to receive the Rajaputs, and engage them with an apparent determination of fierce resistance; but, after a few moments, to retreat, so as to draw the foe after them as far as he would follow. He had a train of elephants ready to march down on the river the moment his men began the feigned retreat, so as to form a rampart against the Rajaputs on their return.

These orders were executed with great precision. The Rajaputs had already crossed the Sutledge thrice, and without suffering any considerable losses, had destroyed numbers of the imperialists. Their activity in the field was wonderful. They flew after their audacious leader like an army of spirits over the plains, their rapidity of movement placing them beyond the reach of every arrow, javelin, or matchlock, that was directed against them. The Sutledge was filled with sand-banks in the neighbourhood of their position, which rendered it easily fordable even to infantry.

For the fourth time, Man-Singh gave the signal for another charge, when the whole body, lance in hand, rushing through the river, rode, with their usual chivalry, against the first body of troops they met, who, being prepared for the encounter, sustained the shock with more firmness than Man-Singh had expected. His followers hurled their lances at the foe, and then relying on the scymitar, dealt such hot destruction around them, that the immediate retreat of their opponents seemed to have little in it of a feigned character. The Rajaputs pursued them.

Meanwhile, the division of cavalry concealed behind the eminence, mounting their horses, galloped down to the river, and passing it without resistance, established themselves in the position confided to the Rajaputs; and the train of elephants having moved rapidly to the opposite bank, constituted a living rampart, through which it was impossible for any force to penetrate.

Chusero, whose eye at once discovered the snare, in which the excessive and undisciplined ardour of the Rajaputs had involved them, joined Hussein without delay, and the two divisions attacking the enemy, drove them back into the river. But Bochari, prepared for this, had already despatched to their support a body of light artillery, mounted on camels. The fire of the guns, passing over the heads of his troops, speedily repelled the masses of infantry brought against them; directing the line of the elephants to open, a dense body of cavalry hastened through the passage into the river, and gaining the opposite bank, under a terrible fire from the matchlocks, recaptured the enemy’s position.

Man-Singh, returning with his Rajaputs, found, to his dismay, the passage walled up by an enormous crowd of elephants. The men stationed in the towers, opened upon him a terrible fire, while a fresh division of cavalry attacking him on the other side, he found himself enclosed within the very jaws of the demon of battle. But his spirit flinched not from the conflict. The fury of his Rajaputs was capable of any thing he could call upon them to perform. Turning back upon the enemy, he resolved to cut his way through them, though closing on him in masses that seemed to offer no chance of escape. Nevertheless, with his single sabre, he clove down horse and rider, until he forced a path, which being made wider behind him by the indomitable valour of his companions, they drove through the dense assemblage, like a wedge riving the oak consolidated by the storms of a thousand winters.

Jehangire, who, mounted on that noble elephant Indragui, watched the events of the day with the utmost diligence, dispatched orders to all the cavalry and camels to take advantage of the passage of the Sutledge, already secured; and such was the speed with which his mandate was obeyed, that before the sun began to decline, the fortune of the day seemed to have crowned his banners with victory. The fire of his artillery was maintained with undiminished intensity; while that of the insurgents, from a failure of ammunition, began to exhibit unequivocal symptoms of decay. The vollies, at first so admirably regular, became less frequent. Gun after gun yielded no new flash. Terror seized the men the moment their supplies were exhausted, and, as the guns were chained together, they despaired of extricating them from the dangers of capture, to which they were now too evidently exposed. They fled, and in their flight began to diffuse a panic through the field, which would have ended the battle, had it not been restored by Afkun.

Abandoning a position, the defence of which was no longer of any consequence, he advanced to the assistance of Chusero and Hussein, who were in engagement with the enemy. The infantry, elephants, and camels of the imperialists, crossing the river at all the fords without any farther difficulty, forthwith proceeded to take an active part in the battle, which now became general. The artillery was for a while silenced on both sides; and, as the smoke in which the field had been involved the whole day, cleared off into the higher regions of the atmosphere, clouds of arrows were seen to take its place, spreading over the combatants a canopy of iron.

At one moment forests of spears glittered in the sun. Then levelled against each other, the masses by whom they were wielded appearing rising and falling like the waves of the ocean--now tending in one direction--now in another. Again the spears were raised, as the forces on either side gave way--but red with gore--and flourished amid shouts of triumph, mingled with the cries of wounded men and dying horses, agonizing even to ears best inured to the din of war. Afkun, Hussein, and Chusero, it was universally admitted, exhibited incessantly prodigies of valour. But the ill-directed ardour of Man-Singh had disconcerted the whole of their plans; their men fell around them, overwhelmed by numbers. Their artillery was not only captured, but in a very short time turned against them by the imperialists. The elephants trod them down. The flying artillery pressed upon them, wherever an attempt was made to offer further resistance. Nevertheless, it was not until Hussein fell, gashed by a hundred sabres, that Afkun, seeing the day irrecoverably lost, exerted all his remaining energy to extricate the prince from the perils, against which he had no longer any power to contend; and prevailing upon the ill-fated youth to mount behind him on his charger, withdrew from the field of slaughter.