第25章

"Ahmad Shaw not stopping to besiege the city,overran the open country,and wherever he came,put to death men;women,and children,without mercy,contrary to the compact made by his ancestor Mahummud Shaw with the roies of Beejanuggur.Laying aside all humanity,whenever the number of the slain amounted to twenty thousand,he halted three days,and made a festival in celebration of the bloody work.He broke down the idol temples,and destroyed the colleges of the Bramins.During these operations a body of five thousand Hindoos,enraged to desperation at the destruction of their country and the insults of their gods,united in taking an oath to sacrifice their lives in attempting to kill the sultan,as the grand author of all their sufferings.For this purpose they employed spies to observe his motions,that they might seize the first opportunity of action.

"It happened,that the sultan going to hunt,in the eagerness of chase separated from the body of his attendants,and advanced near twelve miles from his camp.[106]The devoted infidels,informed of the circumstance,immediately hastened to intercept him,and arrived in sight when even his personal attendants,about two hundred Moguls,were at some distance from him.The sultan alarmed,galloped on in hopes of gaining a small mud enclosure which stood on the plain as a fold for cattle,but was so hotly pursued,that some broken ground falling in his way,he was not able to cross it before his pursuers came up.Luckily some archers at this instant arrived to his aid,so that the enemy were delayed sufficiently to give the sultan time to reach the enclosure with his friends.The infidels attempted to enter,and a sharp conflict took place;all the faithful repeating the creed of testimony,and swearing to die,rather than submit....Their little troop being mostly killed and wounded,the assailants advanced close to the wall,which they began to throw down with pickaxes and hatchets,so that the sultan was reduced to the extremity of distress.At this critical juncture arrived Abd-al-Kadir,first armour-bearer to the sultan,and a body of troops,with whom,fearful of some accident having happened to occasion his absence,he had left the camp in search of his master.The infidels had completed a wide breach,and were preparing to enter,when they found their rear suddenly attacked The sultan with his remaining friends joined Abd-al-Kadir in attacking the enemy,who after a long struggle were driven off the field,with a loss of a thousand men,and about five hundred of the mussulmauns attained martyrdom.Thus the sultan,by the almost inspired caution of Abd-al-Kadir,acceded,as it were,a second time,from the depths of danger to the enjoyment of empire.[107]It deserves place among the records of time,as a remarkable event,that two sovereigns at the head of armies,should fall into such danger for want of numbers,and both escape uninjured....

"after this event Ahmed Shaw,having laid waste the whole country,marched to Beejanuggur,which he kept so closely blocked up,that the inhabitants were reduced to the greatest distress;when Dewul Roy,to spare his people,sent ambassadors to the sultan entreating peace,to which he consented,on condition that he would send the tribute of as many years as he had neglected to pay,[108]laden on his best elephants,and conducted by his son,with his drums,trumpets,and all the other insignia of state,to his camp.Dewul Roy,unable to refuse compliance,agreed to the demands,and sent his son with thirty favourite elephants,loaded with treasure and valuable effects.The sultan sent some noblemen to meet him;and after being led in ceremony through the market and great streets of the camp,he was brought to the presence.[109]The sultan,after embracing,permitted him to sit at the foot of his throne,and putting on his shoulders a magnificent robe,and girding him with a sabre set with jewels,gave him twenty beautiful horses of various countries,a male elephant,dogs for the chase,and three hawks,which the Carnatickehs were till then strangers to the use of.He then marched from the environs of Beejanuggur,and on his arrival on the bank of the Kistnah dismissed the roy's son and returned to Koolburga."To form some idea of the date of this cessation of hostilities we must see what follows in Firishtah's narrative.The historian states that during the year of the Sultan's return to Kulbarga there was a grievous famine in the Dakhan,and "the next year also,no rain appearing,the people became seditious."These two years were probably A.H.826,827,extending from 15th December A.D.1422to 23rd November 1424.He continues,"In the year 828"the Sultan marched against Warangal.The last campaign began about December A.D.1422;and since we must allow some months for Ahmad's blockade of Vijayanagar,which resulted in his reducing the inhabitants to a state of starvation so that the Raya was compelled to capitulate,the date for the end of the war cannot be safely placed earlier than the winter of the year A.D.1423.During these twelve months,however,there was a famine and failure of rain,so that the Sultan may have been able to traverse the cotton plains lying between Vijayanagar and Kulbarga,plains quite impassable for troops in wet weather,somewhat earlier than would otherwise have been the case.