Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c44.s3.11

v4.c44.s3.11

But the battle was not yet over. There was fighting still left in the Rathors. The last desperate charge for which they had long prepared, had still to be delivered. Rajputs who vow to fight to their last breath and never to leave the field except with victory, are invested by their kings with a full suit of robes dyed in saffron,—the colour put on by the Hindu bride-groom when he goes forth to his bridal bed. Such fighters were called Kesariā, i.e., saffron-clad, and in Hindustani, zard-kaprāwālā (red robed). The morning sun had been already up for three hours. The all-saffron column, three thousand strong, set itself in motion at the far western end of the fatal plain. Facing them, at the eastern end of it, stood a granite wall of scarlet coats with black leather belts, surmounted with blue turbans parted at the crown by red cox-combs, and fenced round by a glittering line of steel. The horsemen gathered speed; louder and clearer could be heard that roaring cry of “Hān! Hān! seize them! kill them!” the ground shook under the tramp of the cavalcade, as the flower of Rathor chivalry swept on nearer and nearer, their long red skirts fluttering and their red tasselled turbans dancing like a field of tulips in bloom when struck by a strong wind. Then De Boigne’s quick-firing brass guns vomitted fire, making woeful gaps in that dense crowd of horses and men. Of the three thousand brave men who had set out on that death-ride to save the honour of their clan, only one-third survived to reach the front of the campoo. And then the scarlet wall tipped with blue stirred; the French-led infantry, by their steady and well-directed platoon fire at such close range shot down the foremost Rathor desperadoes. The attacking line of horsemen was torn up by every successive volley. But the fury of the Rajput charge was not yet spent. Again and again, only ten or fifteen of their horsemen, regardless of their hopeless inferiority in number and arms, charged up to the bayonets till they were all laid low.