fought well in one of the skirmishes as Sher Shah advanced. He saved one of his officers at the cost of losing his own right hand and part of his lower arm. We have a bag of silver coin for him to take with him as he makes the long journey back to his village. The second is a junior officer from Lahore who showed great bravery in fighting off an ambush by Sher Shah’s men on one of our equipment convoys. We have a jewelled sword for you to present to him as a reward. The third man you know well — young Hassan Butt from Ghazni. As you requested, he is to be given a greater position in the cavalry.’
The troops chosen for Humayun to review were drawn up a little distance from the ramparts near where oxen and elephants had laboured to get his cannon into position. Humayun rode up and down the ranks of cavalry, some of whose horses, restless from standing in the heat, were tossing their heads or pawing the ground, and then on past the straighter lines of foot archers, infantry and gunners to a position in the centre where a dais had been erected. Those to be rewarded or promoted were called forward. A tear formed in the eye of the wounded Wazim Pathan, who was grey-haired and looked much older than many of Humayun’s troops. As he took the red velvet bag of coin in his remaining hand, he stammered, ‘
‘You deserve all the respect you obtain,’ said Humayun. The officer from Lahore smiled with pride as Humayun handed him the sword. So too did young Hassan Butt, as usual wearing his pale blue turban, when before the whole army Humayun announced his appointment to command an elite band of cavalry.
While all three men returned to the ranks, Humayun spoke to the troops assembled before him. ‘Tomorrow we expect to fight Sher Shah and his men. Even though his armies are strong, his cause is weak. The throne of Hindustan is mine by right as the son of Babur and the descendant of Timur. Sher Shah is the son of a horse dealer and the descendant of nameless bastards. Let us fight so well that by tomorrow evening he will lie in a traitor’s grave and even then occupy more of this land than he is entitled to. Never forget the justice of our cause. Remember that all I ask is that you fight as bravely as the men I have just rewarded. I swear to you I will attempt to outdo them myself.’
Chapter 8
Taking no chances that Sher Shah would again surprise him by a night-time attack as he had at Chausa, Humayun had had his men awake and standing to, ready for action, three hours before dawn. But no attack had come and breakfast was now long over and the cooking fires doused.The morning was clear and even at around nine o’clock the heat was building up as Humayun, dressed for battle, paced once more along the ridge. His scouts had reported that Sher Shah had started to advance about an hour ago and should soon approach the ridge opposite.
They were right. Only a few minutes later Humayun made out the first purple pennants topping the ridge. Then he saw one mail-clad rider, then another, then hundreds. Sher Shah’s vanguard of elite cavalry was deploying in the position Humayun had anticipated under the orders of a tall figure whose breastplate and helmet glinted in the morning sun. It was too far off to distinguish who it was but Humayun assumed — hoped, even — that it was Sher Shah. He wanted to take Sher Shah on in personal combat once more to prove he was the better fighter and to see his enemy bleed into the dust. But he knew that like his men he must fight the temptation to risk all on one sudden desperate onslaught.
A quarter of an hour later, Humayun saw the tall figure wave his sword to put the first ranks of his horsemen into motion. To Humayun there seemed about five thousand of them as they came galloping down from the ridge, yelling and shouting with their purple banners streaming behind them. They appeared, as Humayun expected, to be going to assault head-on his makeshift ramparts, constructed halfway up the ridge on which he stood.
Already Baba Yasaval had given orders for Humayun’s artillery to open fire and the first of Sher Shah’s horsemen were crumpling under the impact of shot.Through the white cannon smoke now swirling around the valley below, Humayun watched others fall from their horses, struck by arrows or musket balls. Among them was one of the banner-carriers who, as he fell, lost his grip on the staff. His purple banner was blown into the path of another rider, becoming entangled with his horse’s legs and bringing animal and man to the ground. A moment or two later, Humayun saw to his intense surprise that rather than charging full tilt straight at his positions, the horsemen were dividing. Some were riding for one end of his line of earth ramparts and the others for the opposite end. They were attempting an encircling movement, seemingly prepared to take the inevitable casualties from Humayun’s gunners and archers as they swerved across his front line.
Moments later, Humayun saw from the corner of his eye another large force of Sher Shah’s cavalry appear, galloping over the low saddle joining the two ridges at their northern end and clearly preparing to attack his less well-defended flanks.
‘Jauhar, send a messenger to tell Baba Yasaval to divert some squadrons of cavalry to repulse the attack over the saddle from the north. I will gallop across to lead them myself.’ Without waiting for confirmation from Jauhar that he had heard, Humayun waved his leather-gauntleted hand to his bodyguard to follow and kicked his brown horse to a gallop along the crest of the ridge. After a few hundred yards the ground began to fall away towards the saddle and Humayun could see that some of Sher Shah’s cavalry had already succeeded in getting behind the northern extremity of his ramparts. His musketeers and archers were firing back at them from the cover of rocks. Then, as he watched, one group of archers turned and, dropping their bows, ran towards the rear, only for Sher Shah’s cavalry to catch up with them. Slashing from their saddles they struck at the archers’ backs, sending most of them sprawling to the ground.
If only foot soldiers would learn that it was impossible to run from cavalry, thought Humayun. It was not only more honourable but safer to stay behind cover and make a fight of it. Hearing the sound of horses’ hooves behind him, he turned in the saddle to see the detachment of horsemen he had requested from Baba Yasaval. They were on a converging path with his own and within a minute and scarcely reducing their speed they had joined up with Humayun’s bodyguard and they were all galloping as one unit.
‘Charge! We must throw the enemy back before he can bring up his own infantry to consolidate his position on our flanks. Aim to separate the attackers into small groups.They’ll be easier to surround and kill that way.’
As Humayun’s men galloped down the slope towards the fighting, a band of mounted archers rode out from Sher Shah’s cavalry.They fired a volley of arrows towards Humayun’s riders before quickly wheeling to return to the protection of their companions.The arrows hissed through the morning air and some of Humayun’s cavalry slackened their pace to lift their shields to protect themselves. Several horses fell, shedding their riders and in turn bringing down others, further disrupting the impetus of the charge. However, Humayun urged his men on, yelling to those around him, ‘Ignore these pinpricks, we’ll be among them before they can fire again.’ Then from his left he heard another noise — the crackle of musket fire from behind a jumble of rocks and boulders. Sher Shah must have had some of his musketeers ride with the cavalry.
Hassan Butt, the young commander Humayun had promoted the previous day, was among the foremost in the charge, easily distinguished by his pale blue turban and the white horse he was riding. Hit in the head by a musket ball, the horse fell instantly and Hassan Butt crashed from the saddle, arms flailing, and rolled over several times on the stony ground. Almost incredibly he then struggled to his feet. The last Humayun saw of him before the main force of his charging cavalry engulfed him, he was waving his sword encouraging his fellows onward.
Humayun had no time to think more about his bravery since he was himself now among Sher Shah’s horsemen. Swerving to avoid the swinging flail of one warrior on a black horse, he made for a tall man who was mounted on a ginger horse and wearing a steel breastplate — surely an important officer. Two of the riders around the man instantly turned their horses towards Humayun who, ducking low, avoided their sword strokes and struck one of them — a small, bearded man with a pock-marked face — a glancing blow to the shoulder which made him drop his weapon.
Quickly Humayun urged his horse alongside the officer. The man cut at Humayun with his long curved sword but at close quarters was unable to put sufficient force into his swing for the sword to penetrate Humayun’s breastplate. Nevertheless, the strength of the stroke knocked Humayun sideways and his horse carried him away. Quickly regaining his balance, Humayun pulled on the reins to turn his mount again and attacked the officer head
