Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 8.3

8.3

He is attended not only by the thirty-five thousand cavalry which at all times compose his body-guard, and by infantry exceeding ten thousand in number, but likewise by the heavy artillery and the light or stirrup-artillery, so called because it is inseparable from the King's person, which the large pieces of ordnance must occasionally quit for the high roads, in order that they may proceed with greater facility. The heavy artillery consists of seventy pieces, mostly of brass. Many of these cannon are so ponderous that twenty yoke of oxen are necessary to draw them along; and some, when the road is steep or rugged require the aid of elephants, in addition to the oxen, to push the carriage-wheels with their heads and trunks. The stirrup-artillery is composed of fifty or sixty small field-pieces, all of brass; each mounted, as I have observed elsewhere, on a small carriage of neat construction and beautifully painted, decorated with a number of red streamers, and drawn by two handsome horses, driven by an artilleryman. There is always a third or relay horse, which is led by an assistant gunner. These field-pieces travel at a quick rate, so that they may be ranged in front of the royal tent in sufficient time to fire a volley as a signal to the troops of the King's arrival.