BABER. 
193 
half-past nine in the morning this memorable battle 
commenced. The right and left wings of the two op- 
posing armies first encountered, and an animated strug- 
gle ensued. The Moghuls began to give way, when they 
were reinforced by Cheen Timur Sultan, and the reserve 
under his command. Cheen Timur, joining in the com- 
bat with those troops, drove the enemy back upon their 
centre. Meanwhile the artillery being advanced, broke 
the line of the foe, producing a scene of dreadful con- 
fusion. Whole ranks were swept to the earth by 
those terrible engines of death. The wings of the 
imperial army, according to the tacticks of Jengyz 
Khan, wheeled round upon each flank of the confede- 
rates, supported by the reserve ; while the imperial 
matchlock men, issuing from behind the artillery, 
made dreadful havoc among the enemy’s disordered 
and broken lines. The struggle was maintained with 
unflinching resolution by the Rajpoots and their allies ; 
the former of whom, though they could not restore 
order among their ranks, disdained to fly. The 
slaughter was prodigious, and the confusion of the 
confederates increased every moment. At length, 
Baber, embracing a favourable opportunity, charged 
with his personal guards and compelled the Indians to 
give way. Most of the confederate nobles were slain. 
Rana Sanka escaped with difficulty from the field, 
which was covered with the dying and the dead. 
The words of the imperial firman are characteristic : 
The road from the field of battle was filled like hell 
with the wounded who died by the way ; and the lowest 
hell was rendered populous in consequence of numbers 
of infidels who had delivered up their lives to the an- 
s 
