Later Mughals v2.c13.s8.3

v2.c13.s8.3

Glancing towards Rajah Ratan Chand with a sneering smile, Husain Ali Khan said: "I have sent sums of money to the East. From this place (Agra) to the Dakhin, crowd after crowd of swift horses will be laid out at every stage. I will have ready twelve thousand torch bearers. Not for one instant, neither by day nor by night, will I stay my course or cease to gallop on." Diyanat Khan admitted that the Nawab's strength would enable him to undergo even more than that exertion, but in this hasty advance how many troops would keep up, and even then, what strength would be left in man or horse? Knitting his brows, Husain Ali Khan replied: "The summit of a soldier's ambition is to die. Alas for us! when a leader with a reputation like yours speaks cowardly words, and is like a man who has lost all heart." The Khan retorted with an Arabic saying equivalent to "Man proposes, God disposes." In the end these heroics were seen to be out of place, and other means were tried. To Nizam-ul-mulk they enclosed a farman in a long letter, both of which I proceed to give. [M. U. ii. 75.]