Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 16.4.6

16.4.6

There he received letters and deputies from Seyd-nûr, and Serendaz-qhan, and from the Gentoo Deshemdas, three officers of Infantry who commanded the garrison of Bara-bhati, a fortress close to that city. The purport was "That they were his humble servants, ready to execute any orders he would send them; and that whenever his victorious ensigns should emit " their glorious beams over the walls of that fortress, the gates of " it would be immediately set open; and his humble servants "would make haste to kiss the sublime threshold of his tent, as " they carried on their hands, and on their eyes, the trappings " of fidelity and submission." The Viceroy intent on pursuing Mir-habib did not pay much attention to such an overture. He was following him incessantly; and he arrived at last in an uninhabited plain of difficult broken ground, where the baggage having not been able to keep pace with the troops, victuals and provisions became scarce and dear. The country was so woody, and the trees so close and so tall, that the vanguard, which had marched some cosses before, was lost, and no intelligence could be had of it for three days together; nor, on the other hand, could the troops that composed it, learn themselves where their main might be. The Viceroy concerned at such an incertitude, ordered all the kettle-drums and trumpets to go out of camp at some distance, and to make as much noise as they could. The expedient succeeded;