Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c10.s7.5

v1.c10.s7.5

People could not believe that it was by pure accident that a single shot fired in that direction was so well-aimed as to reach that particular tent and hit the wazir seated within it. The contemporary Anandram narrates the story that some days before this two spies of the Abdāli had gone to the wazir, pretending to have been former artillerymen of Zakariya Khan and now deserters from the compulsory service of the invader. Being fully trusted by him, they in a few days learnt all about his place of residence, habits, and hours for different kinds of work, and then returned to the Afghan camp on the plea of bringing over more deserters. The information supplied by these men so guided the Afghan gunners that one shot was enough to kill the wazir. Ghulam Ali, writing in 1807, says that Mahdi Quli Beg, Abdali’s chief of ordnance, had visited the wazir with a pretended proposal of peace, and measured the distance of his tent by counting his steps.