The Memoirs of Bābur 4.5

4.5

The reason of this desperate sally from their works was, that, on giving up the place for lost, they had put to death the whole of their wives and women, and, having resolved to perish, had stripped themselves naked, in which condition they had rushed out to the fight; and, engaging with ungovernable desperation, drove our people along the ramparts. Two or three hundred Pagans had entered Medini Rao's house, where numbers of them slew each other, in the following manner: One person took his stand with a sword in his hand, while the others, one by one, crowded in and stretched out their necks eager to die. In this way many went to hell; and by the favour of God, in the space of two or three gharis, I gained this celebrated fort, without raising my standard, or beating my kettledrum, and without using the whole strength of my arms. On the top of a hill, to the north-west of Chanderi, I erected a tower of the heads of the Pagans. * * *