Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c40.s7.3

v3.c40.s7.3

Therefore, for a week after reaching Lalsot, Sindhia firmly held to his cautious resolve and kept his generals back from advancing to seek a conflict with the enemy. The Rajput army, in spite of the tall talk of their generals and the ignorant clamour of their rank and file, really dreaded a trial of strength with Sindhia. They had a salutary fear of his more modern and better served artillery and his fine sepoy battalions under French commandants. They therefore planned to neutralise these advantages of their enemy by delivering battle on a rainy day when gunpowder would be less effective against sword and lance. Or, as an alternative, five thousand Rathor horse, vowed to death, would deliver a wild onslaught on his guns, ride over their brethren mown down by the first discharge or two, and impetuously fall upon the gunners and cut them down before they could load again. The Marathas on their part were terrorised by the reports which their spies brought of the Rajput war-plan of keeping their main force in ambush in the deep ravines which scored that terrain, and sending a small body onwards to engage the Marathas and then by a pretended flight decoy them into the nālās. Hence, Mahadji abandoned his first idea of surprising the immobile Rajput camp at night. He trusted to time for the speedy dissolution of the ill-knit Rajput confederacy; he must fight a field action in which his superiority in artillery and disciplined musketeers would have full effect. [Akhbarat.]