Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c56.s24.12

v4.c56.s24.12

When the fighting at last ended, the victors had no strength left for pursuit. The overworked men and horses of the British army tramped wearily to their camp in the plain between the villages of Sahajpur and Singraka, a mile north-east of Laswari. But even here nature seemed bent on denying them peace and rest. The setting sun revealed an extensive plain covered with the bodies of the dead and the dying to the number of many thousands. On all sides arose the groans of the wounded, for whom the medical and transport arrangements were very scanty. "This terrible picture was heightened by successive explosions of powder magazines and tumbrils of ammunition (from the burning village of Mālpur), which shook the atmosphere, and obscured the horizon with tremendous clouds of sulphurous smoke. The murky night brought a hurricane which came on with furious rapidity, till it spread an indescribable degree of horror over the bloodstained field." [Thorn, 227.]