Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c22.s7.3

v2.c22.s7.3

We shall now turn to the city and the movements of the wazir. On the 15th he urged for the first time the raising of a rampart round the city! “Men from the Old City, Mughalpura and other places outside the gates went, some to New Delhi (i.e., Shah Jahan’s city), some to the Old Fort, some to the Arab Sarai or the shrine of Nizam-ud-din Auliya. During this alarm the soldiers of Antaji Maratha began to plunder on the river bank (reti.)” [DC.] Next day (16th) at noon the wazir went with a few men out of the palace to the Lahor gate of the city. It was reported that Abdali’s forces had reached Narela, where the Ruhelas of Najib had joined them. “The other captains with their troops got ready and joined the wazir, who merely sat down in the Masjid Pari beyond the Lahor gate, being overcome by terror and cowardice, conscious of his inability to oppose Abdali and incapable of fighting in desperation like a hero.”