Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c44.s3.8

v4.c44.s3.8

Unable to break the square of the campoo, the Rajput cavalry turned aside and struck the Maratha horse ranged behind. The Deccanis who had been long stationary, could not resist the momentum of the Rathor charge and fled far away to the rear. The whole body of Rajput assailants now wheeled to their own left and poured in a resistless flood on Gopāl Bhāu (Centre) and Jivvā Dādā (Right), who were swept off their posts and did not draw rein till they had got behind the stationary squadrons of Holkar and Ali Bahādur, a mile or more to the rear. Here some confused hand to hand fighting took place. And then, after two hours of such breathless exertion, the fury of the Rathor onslaught was spent, their horses and men were quite blown, their ranks were woefully thinned by the incessant fire of the campoo behind them; so, when the fresh horsemen of Holkar and Ali Bahādur boldly faced the enemy coming against them, and backed by such of Sindhia’s troopers as could be rallied, fell pellmell upon the crowd of Rathor cavalry on the Maratha right wing, they pushed them back.