The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c21.184

v4.c21.184

On 13 January the Marāthā chiefs approached their leader. "It is now two days since we have had anything to eat", they said. "Do not let us perish in this misery: let us make one spirited effort against the enemy, and whatever is our destiny that will happen." Holkar and Sindia urged once more that the cavalry should abandon the camp, leaving the infantry and non-combatants to their fate, and cut their way through to Delhi. Ibrāhīm Khān not unnaturally refused to be sacrificed, and the Bhāo Sāhib rightly declined to abandon the women to the mercy of the Afghāns. It was determined to deliver a general assault on the enemy's lines on the following day. Whatever were the Bhāo's feelings, he was too brave a man to show them; and at the close of the council, he distributed *pān* and *supārī* to his officers with all the dignified ceremony of a *darbār*.