knew that in his present position, a single defeat meant utter annihilation—that should he be defeated in a single encounter, all would be lost. In such a case, when he saw that the Pathans had gone out of sight, he kept cautiously following them, and then plundered them of their provisions, horses, cannon, &c. If, on the contrary, the party turned out to be small, he remained quiet in his ambush so long as they did not come up to the desired spot,—then when the opportunity came, with loud cries, he fell on the foe, like a famishing tiger, and cut him to pieces. Under such circumstances, the men could not know the neighbourhood of the enemy, and as a matter of course were quite unprepared for fight. Accidentally falling into the jaws of the enemy, they lost their lives almost without a struggle.
In this manner, a great many soldiers were destroyed. The Pathans were profoundly agitated; and set about to bring on an open fight with the view of crushing Jagat Singha's men. But where they were nobody could tell;—like the messengers of Death, they presented themselves once only before the Pathan soldiers at their last moments, and vanished as soon as they had accomplished their mortal work. Jagat Singha was a master of strategy; he did not always keep his five thousand together;—here a thousand, there five hundred; at one place, two hundred, at another place, two hundred. As he received intimations of the presence of the enemy, he despatched his men by detachments, each proportioned to the exegencies of the case. When a job was accomplished, he no longer kept his men at the scene of action. Where the Rajputs were and where they were not, the Pathans could not at all ascertain. Every day tidings of the destruction of troops came to the ear of Katlu Khan—
