‘To the northwest then.’ Humayun mounted his black stallion and, with the half of his bodyguard that he had not sent to protect the women around him, made his way over to the northwest defences as fast as he could. In the muddy conditions the horses sometimes sank up to their hocks. When one rider tried to push his mount too hard, it stumbled and fell, fracturing a hind leg which had stuck in the mud.
Approaching the area of his camp which had become the front lines, Humayun saw that his commanders had got howdahs on to a dozen war elephants and brought them forward. Protected by the canopies of the howdahs from the seemingly unceasing rain, some of his musketeers had actually succeeded in priming and firing their long-barrelled weapons and bringing down into the mud a few of Sher Shah’s attackers. Taking a little heart from their success, small bands of his infantry were firing volleys of arrows from the cover of overturned baggage wagons and forcing Sher Shah’s men, in turn, to shelter behind five of Humayun’s large cannon which they had overrun in their first assault.
As he reached the forward position, Humayun shouted to his men. ‘Thank you, my brave soldiers one and all. You’ve blunted the enemy’s attack. Now it is time to recover our great cannon. To allow Sher Shah’s rabble to carry them off would be a dishonour. I will lead you. Elephant drivers advance. Musketeers, shoot down more of those insolent rebels for me.’
Humayun waited impatiently for the elephants to begin to move forward. Eventually they did so, lurching through the mud and making the howdahs on their backs sway so much that it was difficult for the musketeers to steady their weapons to shoot accurately. Humayun waved his horsemen forward too. As they approached the captured cannon, Humayun saw a group of Sher Shah’s gunners run from the shelter of one of the largest bronze cannons towards a beige-coloured tent belonging to Humayun’s infantry that had apparently remained standing after his men had retreated. Suddenly these gunners pulled away the front of the tent to reveal a sixth captured cannon that they had somehow managed to drag inside the tent and to get dry enough to fire. Immediately an artilleryman, who had been hidden within the tent, applied a light to the fuse.
With a loud bang and lots of billowing white smoke, the ball flew from the cannon’s mouth, hitting the foremost of Humayun’s advancing elephants squarely in its great domed forehead. Mortally wounded, the elephant at once fell sideways, dislodging its howdah and throwing the musketeers, arms and legs flailing, to the ground.The elephant behind panicked and ran forward, squashing one of the fallen musketeers into the mud beneath its feet. As he struggled to regain control of his charge, which had its head back and grey trunk raised and was trumpeting in fear, one of this elephant’s two drivers also tumbled from its neck but the other held on and seemed to be succeeding in restraining his mount.
However, by now all Humayun’s attention was on the cannon which had fired the shot.The gunners were frantically trying to reload it. They had taken a linen bag of powder from the metal chest which had kept it dry and succeeded in ramming it down the cannon barrel. Two of them were struggling to lift a metal cannon ball, ready to roll it down the barrel after the powder, when Humayun reached them. Bending low from the saddle of his black horse, Humayun’s first stroke with Alamgir almost severed the arm of one of the men lifting the ball. He fell to the ground together with the cannon ball, blood spurting from his wound. Humayun cut at the face of the other man but the gunner got his arm up to protect it. Nevertheless, his arm was badly gashed and, turning, he began to run. He had got no more than a couple of paces before Humayun’s sword caught him in the flesh at the back of his neck, above his chain mail and below his domed steel helmet, and he too crumpled to the ground. By this time Humayun’s bodyguard had killed or put to flight the remainder of the enemy gunners and his musketeers were dismounting from the elephants.
‘Good work. Order the remaining infantry to advance to protect the cannon. Our success will give them renewed confidence. I must return to the centre of the camp.’
With that, Humayun turned his horse, which was already blowing hard from its charge through the clinging mud, towards his scarlet command tent.Visibility had much improved as the rain, which had slackened during his attack on the guns, had by now almost ceased. From the centre he would be able to direct a further strengthening of his position, Humayun thought.
However, he had covered scarcely half the distance to his tent when Jauhar galloped up. ‘Majesty,’ he gasped, ‘Baba Yasaval asked me to beg your presence on the far southwestern perimeter. A large force of Sher Shah’s cavalry is attacking along the bank of the Ganges. They have already broken through our front lines and the vanguard are deep among our makeshift secondary defences.’
Immediately Humayun pulled the head of his black horse round and the willing beast, responding to his urging, began to pick up pace towards the west past the neat lines of tents hastily abandoned by Humayun’s men as they had rushed earlier to repel the unexpected attackers. He was followed by Jauhar and his bodyguards.
Very soon Humayun could hear increasing cries and sounds of battle and then, breasting a low rise, he looked down on the wide, muddy banks of the Ganges and a scene of chaos. Several bands of Sher Shah’s cavalry had breached his front line and his own cavalry were trying to encircle them or drive them back. Other mounted officers, waving their swords, were encouraging groups of his infantry forward to fill gaps in the defences but they seemed to be having only limited success. Indeed some of the infantrymen were fleeing towards the rear, throwing down the small round shields and the long spears with which they were armed.
Most ominously of all, only a mile or so from his wavering defences another large force of Sher Shah’s cavalry was forming up to launch a further attack. At their centre was a knot of bright flags and pennants and to Humayun it seemed obvious that Sher Shah was there, ready to lead this charge in person finally to overwhelm his enemies.
‘We’ve only got a short time to prepare to confront them, Jauhar. Where are Baba Yasaval and my other commanders?’
‘When I left to find you, Majesty, Baba Yasaval was a little further along this rise with some of his junior officers. But he told me the situation was so perilous that he could not wait for your arrival but would straightaway lead an attack on some of the enemy cavalry that had already broken through. Isn’t that his yellow flag at the head of those riders over there, driving that group of our enemy before them?’
‘You have good eyes, Jauhar. Get a message to him to bring as many men as he can detach to meet me by that cluster of grey tents over there. Send further messengers to summon any other officers who can break off from the action to lead their men there too. We’ll meet Sher Shah’s advance head on. The ground around those tents looks firm enough for us to be able to get up enough speed to do them some damage with the weight of our initial charge.’
Only ten minutes later Humayun had a number of his officers around him. He was saddened how many including Baba Yasaval — who was helmetless and had a bloody, yellow cloth wound around his head — were wounded, and even more how many were missing. ‘Where is Suleiman Mirza?’
‘Dead, Majesty, killed by a spear thrust as he attempted to fight off cavalry.’
‘And Ahmed Khan?’
‘Badly wounded. In the very first minutes of Sher Shah’s attack while he was inspecting the pickets two arrows hit him in the thigh. Some of his men found him weak from loss of blood and got him over to the opposite side of the Ganges along with other wounded. They’re being cared for by the men you stationed there.’
‘We must manage without these brave officers, trusting in our own courage and in our destiny.’