Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c27.s22.9

v2.c27.s22.9

Shortly after half-past one, the reinforcements reached the wazir, and they at once delivered a charge at the full gallop. Ten thousand fresh troops thrown into the contest at a time when the Marathas were exhausted by four hours of strenuous fighting and reduced to less than 10,000 men, turned the scale decisively against them. But the Bhāu refused to acknowledge defeat. He fought on for over an hour more, regardless of the tremendous odds now arrayed against him, and delivered three counter-charges with his rapidly thinning band of personal followers and himself headed the attack. In that awful hour, when all hope of victory had vanished and life had assumed the bitter taste of death in the mouth of the Marathas, there was no holding back among their leaders or their Household Cavalry. Nor did Vishwās Rao, the young heir to the Peshwā’s throne, belie his noble ancestry. He pressed into the thick of the fight along with the boldest of his comrades.