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Machine transcription
the Afghans, who were greatly outnumbered,
were forced to give ground. Everything seemed
to go against them. Shah Wali, seeing this
miserable plight of his friends, dismounted, and
sword in hand, went forward to meet the enemy,
determined to lay his life at the post. Nawab
Shujaud-daula was not far from the Grand
Vazier, but could not see his plight due to thick
dust intervening between him and the Vazier.
Shortly afterwards he sent some one in that
direction to find out the cause of the suddenly
diminishing sounds of men and horses. To his
great surprise, he learnt that the Grand Vazier was
fighting on foot, reproaching his men for cowar-
dice, and endeavouring to bring them back to
their posts. “Tell Shuja”, he said to the messenger,
“if he does not come at once to my assistance,
I must perish.” But Shuja would not move.
Seeing this, the King came in person with
his reserve to the assistance of his Vazier. The
battle now became stationary, though the advan-
tage was still with the Marhattas, who came
forward like the surging waves, confident of
their victory. Ahmad Shah, rallying the fugitives
and ordering all those who refused to obey to be
Roughly two thirds of characters agree with a modern printed edition of the same text. Much of the disagreement is editorial, not misreading. Treat the transcription as a finding aid and read the page image before quoting. How this was measured.