1 12 MEER MUNOO DEFEATED. A. D. 1752.
2 country for a wide space round had been foraged and
3 wasted, and the distress for provisions was not less in
4 the Dooranee camp than in their own — that in twenty
5 days more the hot weather would set in, when the
6 northern troops of the Shah would find the sun and wind
7 intolerable in the plains, and hence would be compelled ,
8 to retreat or to attack them in their lines to disadvantage.^^
9 There can be no doubt that the advice of the Hindoo was
10 the preferable and more prudent course, but the viceroy
11 was young, and not free from the impatience and impe-
12 ^'tuosity of youth, and the opinion of Adeena Beg fell
13 '^ more iu accordance with his own disposition. • Early in
14 the morning therefore of the 12th April 1752, his army
15 moved from its lines and took up ground on an elevated
16 spot marked by an old brick-kiln. The Shah prepared
17 immediately for action. His artillery was ordered to
18 advance, and a cannonade was kept up between the two
19 armies until the afternoon, when the Shah observing
20 some confusion ordered a charge by a select body of
21 cavalry, which was so far successful as to induce Mekr
22 MuNOO to retire again within his entrenchments. In the
23 • retreat Raja Kaonra Mul's elephant chanced to tread
24 ^' - I on an old grave, the earth of which sinking strained and
25 nearly disabled the animal. Before the Mahout could
26 extricate him, the Raja was overtaken and slain by a
27 Dooranee horseman, and his loss, when it came to be
28 known in the entrenched camp, occasioned a panic and
29 desertion so general, that the viceroy was compelled, by
30 diminished numbers, to retire within the city wall. In this
31 exigency Aueena Beg Khan abrnjjlly withdrew with
32 his troops, and Meer Munoo, finding the fortifications of
33 the city out of repair and untenable, was induced to yield
34 to circumstances, and tendered his submission to the Shah,