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TIMUE LANG VICTORIOUS 167 The Indian centre still held out under Ikbal and the Sultan, but Timur sent orders to pick off the mahauts and wound the riderless elephants. The Indian soldiers, says the conqueror, " showed no lack of courage, but bore themselves manfully in the fight; " they were out- numbered and outgeneralled, however, and finally took to flight. The Sultan and Ikbal Khan escaped with difficulty to the city, trampling their own men under the elephants in the crush, and that night they fled to the mountains, basely leaving their wives and children behind. The victory was complete, and Timur, pitching his camp by the tomb of Firoz, gave thanks to God with tears. The leading men came out and surrendered the city on the following day, and in deference to the pleading of the ulama and other wise and pious Moslems the conqueror accepted a ransom for the lives of the people. There was to be no sack and no massacre. Unfortu- nately the collection of the ransom led to brawls on the 26th, and Timur 's humane intentions were frustrated. It was no doubt difficult to restrain a great army of Turks, who had been accustomed for years to slaughter and pillage wherever they went. For three days the unhappy city was turned into a shambles. "All my army, no longer under control, rushed to the city and thought of nothing but killing, plundering, and making prisoners." Every man got from twenty to a hundred captives, many of whom Timur sent to Samarkand to teach the famous handicrafts of India to his own peo- ple. There were immense spoils of rubies, diamonds,