there. They’re just emerging.’
Sure enough Humayun could see through the pouring rain Salima crawling from beneath the vast, enveloping folds of the tent, followed by young Gulbadan and the other women. Humayun embraced Khanzada and as he did so he realised that, now the immediate danger was over and the hot blood of battle was ebbing from her, she was beginning to shake.
‘Send Ahmed Khan to me, Jauhar, and find out if we can still launch boats on the Ganges. If so, have several prepared as fast as the sailors can so that my aunt, sister and concubines can be rowed upriver to safety. Make sure an escort is readied too. Go now.’
Almost immediately Jauhar had left, Ahmed Khan ran up.
‘How is our perimeter withstanding these attacks?’ asked Humayun.
‘Well, Majesty. After their fierce initial assault in which they made severe inroads, the enemy seemed to hold back for a while as if waiting for something.’
‘To learn the success of their raid on the women’s tents. .’ muttered Humayun. ‘They won’t keep back for long. But it might give us enough time to prop up our defences.’
‘Majesty. The passage upriver is clear. We’ve boats ready and a double crew of rowers for each,’ the breathless returning Jauhar broke in. ‘A strong detachment of cavalry is mounted and ready to ride along the north bank to accompany them.’
Humayun turned to Khanzada. ‘Aunt, you must go now. I trust in you to protect yourself and the other women. I appoint you to command the boats. Jauhar, tell the soldiers and sailors that however strange they find it to obey a woman’s commands, they must do so or face my wrath.’
‘They will have no need of Jauhar’s words,’ said Khanzada’s determined voice. ‘They will obey Babur’s sister. We will meet again when you have your victory. Bring me the head of that slippery-tongued traitor Tariq Khan, and Sher Shah bound to serve as my latrine cleaner.’ With that she turned and swiftly picked her way over the mud to Gulbadan and the other women, then led them towards the riverbank, soon disappearing into the rain and gloom.
How brave she was, Humayun thought. How strong the blood of Timur ran in her slight and no longer youthful body. He had been foolish, oh so foolish, to trust in Tariq Khan and to believe in Sher Shah’s crafty delaying answers. Why hadn’t he questioned their motives more rigorously? Had he been too content to relax into the pleasures of the
‘Ahmed Khan, get further reports from our defences. Jauhar, bring me my armour, then saddle my horse.’
In the quarter of an hour it took Humayun to ready himself fully for battle, it had begun to grow light. Several of his commanders, led by Baba Yasaval, had joined him. ‘The situation is serious, Majesty. Sher Shah is attacking with renewed force. We cannot move the cannon into firing positions. Look over there.’ Following the direction of his officer’s pointing arm, Humayun saw a number of his artillerymen lashing a double team of oxen yoked to one of his largest bronze guns in an attempt to turn it to face the enemy threat. But however hard they were hit, however much they were cajoled, the great beasts stumbled and slipped in the mud, sinking ever deeper into the quagmire. When the men added their own weight to that of the animals, they too could make no impression, some simply falling full length in the churned brown mud.
‘Majesty, it’s the same with all the guns,’ said Baba Yasaval.
‘I believe you. Besides, the downpour is such it’ll be difficult for either the gunners or the musketeers to keep the gunpowder dry or light their fuses. We must rely on our bravery in close combat with the old weapons of cold steel. We still have many more men than our enemies. Get the officers to marshal them in the best defensive positions they can improvise. Use the wagons and tents as barricades. .’ Humayun paused and then — still conscious of the perilous position of his aunt and the other women and that it was his complacency and naive gullibility that had exposed them to danger — commanded, ‘Send another strong detachment of cavalry — ten thousand men including half my own bodyguard — back along the riverbank to add to the protection of the royal women.’
‘But we need them here, Majesty.’
‘Don’t question my orders. It’s a matter of honour to save them.’
Baba Yasaval did not argue further but despatched a messenger with the instruction.
‘Now, Baba Yasaval, where will my presence help the most?’
‘Over there to the northwest, Majesty. Enemy cavalry broke through our pickets and attacked our infantry while they were still in their tents and killed many before they could defend themselves. Some ran away. Only by rushing reinforcements of Badahkshanis and Tajiks into position have we been able to hold the line, and even then only some distance back from our original perimeter.’
‘To the northwest then.’ Humayun mounted his black stallion and, with the half of his bodyguard that he had not sent to protect the women around him, made his way over to the northwest defences as fast as he could. In the muddy conditions the horses sometimes sank up to their hocks. When one rider tried to push his mount too hard, it stumbled and fell, fracturing a hind leg which had stuck in the mud.
Approaching the area of his camp which had become the front lines, Humayun saw that his commanders had got howdahs on to a dozen war elephants and brought them forward. Protected by the canopies of the howdahs from the seemingly unceasing rain, some of his musketeers had actually succeeded in priming and firing their long- barrelled weapons and bringing down into the mud a few of Sher Shah’s attackers. Taking a little heart from their success, small bands of his infantry were firing volleys of arrows from the cover of overturned baggage wagons and forcing Sher Shah’s men, in turn, to shelter behind five of Humayun’s large cannon which they had overrun in their first assault.
As he reached the forward position, Humayun shouted to his men. ‘Thank you, my brave soldiers one and all. You’ve blunted the enemy’s attack. Now it is time to recover our great cannon. To allow Sher Shah’s rabble to carry them off would be a dishonour. I will lead you. Elephant drivers advance. Musketeers, shoot down more of those insolent rebels for me.’
Humayun waited impatiently for the elephants to begin to move forward. Eventually they did so, lurching through the mud and making the howdahs on their backs sway so much that it was difficult for the musketeers to steady their weapons to shoot accurately. Humayun waved his horsemen forward too. As they approached the captured cannon, Humayun saw a group of Sher Shah’s gunners run from the shelter of one of the largest bronze cannons towards a beige-coloured tent belonging to Humayun’s infantry that had apparently remained standing after his men had retreated. Suddenly these gunners pulled away the front of the tent to reveal a sixth captured cannon that they had somehow managed to drag inside the tent and to get dry enough to fire. Immediately an artilleryman, who had been hidden within the tent, applied a light to the fuse.
With a loud bang and lots of billowing white smoke, the ball flew from the cannon’s mouth, hitting the foremost of Humayun’s advancing elephants squarely in its great domed forehead. Mortally wounded, the elephant at once fell sideways, dislodging its howdah and throwing the musketeers, arms and legs flailing, to the ground.The elephant behind panicked and ran forward, squashing one of the fallen musketeers into the mud beneath its feet. As he struggled to regain control of his charge, which had its head back and grey trunk raised and was trumpeting in fear, one of this elephant’s two drivers also tumbled from its neck but the other held on and seemed to be succeeding in restraining his mount.
However, by now all Humayun’s attention was on the cannon which had fired the shot.The gunners were frantically trying to reload it. They had taken a linen bag of powder from the metal chest which had kept it dry and succeeded in ramming it down the cannon barrel. Two of them were struggling to lift a metal cannon ball, ready to roll it down the barrel after the powder, when Humayun reached them. Bending low from the saddle of his black horse, Humayun’s first stroke with Alamgir almost severed the arm of one of the men lifting the ball. He fell to the ground together with the cannon ball, blood spurting from his wound. Humayun cut at the face of the other man but the gunner got his arm up to protect it. Nevertheless, his arm was badly gashed and, turning, he began to run. He had got no more than a couple of paces before Humayun’s sword caught him in the flesh at the back of his neck, above his chain mail and below his domed steel helmet, and he too crumpled to the ground. By this time Humayun’s bodyguard had killed or put to flight the remainder of the enemy gunners and his musketeers were dismounting from the elephants.
‘Good work. Order the remaining infantry to advance to protect the cannon. Our success will give them
