History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v2.c22.42

v2.c22.42

A close hand to hand combat now ensued; sword and dagger were freely plied. But superior numbers bore down the gallant defenders; Bahadur Khan fell down wounded; two of his captains, Syed Dilawwar and Hadidad Khan were slain; and his division seemed at the point of being routed, when Islam Khan came to its aid from the Right Wing and Shaikh Mir with the Advanced Reserve. It was now the turn of Rustam Khan to be outnumbered: assailed in front, right and left, plied with musketry-fire and a heavy discharge of arrows, he still maintained the combat on even terms. While the engagement was at its hottest, and (to borrow a hyperbole of the Persian history) "the blood had mounted waist-high," a bullet lodged in Rustam Khan's arm and he felt that his end had come. Quickly changing his elephant for a fleet horse, "he set his heart on the last voyage", and with a dozen other desperate men hewed his way to the centre of the enemy's ranks and there fell amidst a heap of the slain. It was a glorious end for the scarred veteran of many battles in