TIMUR BEG. 
99 
taken the strong fortress of Lony by assault, put the 
garrison to the sword. 
When the royal conqueror arrived in the vicinity of 
Delhi, he forded the river with only seven hundred 
horse to reconnoitre the city. Mahmood Toghluk, 
the king, observing the invader accompanied by so 
small a number of troops, ordered a sally to be made 
with five thousand cavalry : these were repulsed by 
the Jagatays, and the officer who led them falling into 
the enemy’s hands, was instantly beheaded. Timur 
then repassed the river and joined his army. Being 
informed that the prisoners taken since he had cross- 
ed the Indus, amounting to upwards of a hundred 
thousand, had given signs of exultation when they 
saw him attacked by the troops of Delhi, and fearing 
that they might join their countrymen on the day 
of battle, he ordered the whole of them above the 
age of fifteen to be slain. Thus, in one day, nearly 
a hundred thousand persons were put to death in cold 
blood. This massacre alone stamps the character of 
Timur. The glosses of friends cannot obliterate, nei- 
ther can the exaggerations of enemies magnify, this 
simple fact : all comment upon such a transaction 
must be mere waste of words. It happened early 
in the month of January 1399. 
Next day the emperor again forded the river, 
and entrenched his army on the plain of Ferozabad, 
which commanded one of the suburbs of Delhi. On 
the seventh of January he quitted his entrenchments, 
and drew up his battalions in order of battle. This 
was pronounced an unlucky day by the astrologers, 
who had consulted the planets ; but the genius of 
