Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c38.s4.8

v3.c38.s4.8

Shafi was furious on meeting with this sudden reverse. "He felt that without a fight Afrāsiyāb could not be made to tread the right path; but out of respect for the throne he did not wish to engage in hostilities at the capital." [ML. 252.] With huge rival armies scowling and growling at each other in the same city, and that city without any magistrate or police guard, a conflict could not be long averted. On 21st August, a personal altercation between Jamāl Khan of Afrāsiyāb’s army and Pauli a German mercenary captain on Shafi’s side, spread to their respective followers like a wildfire. They flew to arms and dragging out their artillery barricaded the streets of Delhi, facing each other along a long line from the Kashmiri gate to the Jāmi‘ Masjid, as well as the Tripolia and the neighbourhood of the Kābuli gate. But the Emperor sent his chief eunuch to forbid fighting and the two sides withdrew. So, Delhi knew peace again, but it was for that day only. On the 24th the rival hosts again came out and dug trenches across the city, but again went back to their quarters at the Emperor’s appeal.