Nigar-namah-i Hind 3: Entrenched Camps.

3

Having at last reached Panipat, the Bhao encompassed that city, and having regularly encamped his army around it, gave directions for the excavation of a ditch all round his own camp. Immediately after the promulgation of the order, the men applied themselves vigorously to the work, and having in a very short space of time dug a ditch twenty yards broad, and deeper than the height of an elephant, made it their safeguard against the enemy's fire, and having thus gained confidence, held their ground with firmness and intrepidity. Bhao having fixed upon this place in his own mind as the scene of strife and tumult, took up his quarters there, and planting his artillery at intervals connected by chains all along the ditch, closed the path of access against the enemy. The Shah having likewise arrived at the head of his army, terrible as the day of judgment, within a distance of four kos, directed the excavation of an ordinary ditch, such as was usually dug every day. The pioneers, agreeably to orders, dug a ditch according to custom, and placed along the brink of it an abattis of dhak trees, or whatever else they could find; but as a longer stay was expected here than at other places, the excavation of a larger ditch than usual was undertaken.