Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 4.17.4

4.17.4

In a moment it commenced raining heads, which dropped like hail from the clouds raised by the inflamed sabres, and streams of blood pouring down from the hands of so many heroes in fury were drenching the dry thirsty earth. How many bodies, hitherto accustomed to all the conveniences and delicacies of a luxurious life, found that day their bed on the bloody hard ground, and how many heads streaming with blood, did colour the point of spears, like so many full blown roses, fixed on their stalks! The ponderous earth eternally shaken by the incessant roaring of cannon, seemed to have assumed a motion like the heaven, whilst heaven itself confounded at the appearance of so many blood-drunk warriors, stopped short, and stood motionless, like a lumpish clod of earth. Daüd-khan had given orders to his conductor to carry his elephant close to that of Hossein-aaly-khan's as soon as he could descry him. But meanwhile Hiramon, a valorous Gentoo, who commanded the Afghan's van, had pushed as far as the enemy's artillery, where he was making a great slaughter, when he was himself given for food to the famished sabres of a body of Seids of Bar, who threw themselves in his way, and killed or wounded every one of those that had followed him. But this loss did not divert Daüd-khan from his design; he was eagerly pushing forward amongst a body of officers mounted like himself, amongst whom he towered out as terrible as the man on the elephant mentioned in the Coran.