190 
THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL. 
the early part of the night, but at midnight he 
quietly summoned every man to his post, and putting 
himself at the head of a chosen body of cavalry, he 
stole unheard and unseen from his entrenchments, and 
fell with great fury upon the enemy’s troops while 
they were buried in sleep. Having on the first onset 
carried the lines, he commenced a cruel slaughter of 
the panic-stricken troops ; and having despatched a 
detachment of infantry and artillery to the rear of the 
lines hv a circuitous route, the royal tents were attacked 
at the same moment. 
The confusion was becoming general, and the 
troops would have fled in all directions, but appeared, 
in the disorder, to meet their foes on all sides. The 
person of the Emperor was in imminent peril from 
the fire which was kept up upon the royal tents, 
and a complete overthrow would have been the speedy 
result, had not the Begum Sumroo, acting in the 
spirit of the oriental maxim, “ Fear when danger 
is distant, when present fight like heroes,” with unex- 
ampled address and courage, made a strenuous effort 
* to rally the royal troops. In order to render their 
mutual positions intelligible, she with great presence 
of mind set fire to a number of tents and other com- 
bustible matter, and then putting herself at the head 
of her troops, despatched a messenger to the Emperor 
begging him to repair to her tents which were out 
of reach of the enemy’s battery, while she with one 
hundred followers, and a single six pounder, which 
