Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c42.s2.46

v3.c42.s2.46

On the following morning (11th October), while Rānā Khan was issuing his orders for the day's fight, the fort ramparts looked silent and deserted. Some of the captive princes whose rooms had been locked from the outside by Ghulām Qādir, cried out to the Maratha scouts under the walls that the fort had been vacated. Then Himmat Bahadur entered it after sending a man up to the battlement by means of a rope-ladder to open the gate from the inside. The Marathas entered later under Ravloji Sindhia. The most pressing needs of the half-dead Shah Alam were food and water, and these were at once supplied. The numerous princes and princesses and their servants were equally starving, and Rānā Khan sent them huge quantities of cooked meals. Barbers were sent in to pare nails and trim beards which had been left unattended to for two months and a half.