road, we were stopped by ditches and channels full of mud, in which the guns stuck fast.  As I was trying to disengage them the English reached us, and surrounded us so as to cut off all retreat.  Then I surrendered with 3 or 4 officers and about 40 soldiers who were with me, and the guns.  It was about 4 o’clock in the afternoon of the 15th of January, 1761, a moment whose malign influence it was as it were impossible to resist, since it was that of the surrender of Pondicherry,[117] a place 300 leagues away from us.”

Gholam Husain Khan has left a graphic description of this incident.

“Monsieur Law, with the small force and the artillery which he could muster, bravely fought the English themselves, and for some time he made a shift to withstand their superiority.  Their auxiliaries consisted of large bodies of natives, commanded by Ramnarain and Raj Balav, but the engagement was decided by the English, who fell with so much effect upon the enemy that their onset could not be withstood by either the Emperor or Kamgar Khan.  The latter, finding he could not resist, turned about and fled.  The Emperor, obliged to follow him, quitted the field of battle, and the handful of troops that followed M. Law, discouraged by this flight and tired of the wandering life which they had hitherto led in his service, turned about likewise and followed the Emperor.  M. Law, finding himself abandoned and alone, resolved not to turn his back.  He bestrode one of his guns and remained firm in that posture, waiting the moment for his death.  This being reported to Major Carnac, he detached himself from his main body with Captain Knox and some other officers, and he advanced to the man on the gun, without taking with him either a guard or any Telingas[118] at all.  Being arrived near, this troop alighted from their horses, and, pulling their caps from their heads, they swept the air with them, as if to make him a salam; and this salute being returned by M. Law in the same manner, some parley followed in their own language.  The Major, after paying high encomiums to M. Law for his perseverance, conduct, and bravery, added these words:  ’You have done everything that could be expected from a brave man; and your name shall be undoubtedly transmitted to posterity by the pen of history; now loosen your sword from your loins, come amongst us, and abandon all thoughts of contending with the English.’  The other answered that, if they would accept of his surrendering himself just as he was he had no objection, but that as to surrendering himself with the disgrace of being without his sword, it was a shame he would never submit to, and that they might take his life if they were not satisfied with that condition.  The English commanders, admiring his firmness, consented to his surrendering himself in the manner he wished; after which the Major, with his officers, shook hands with him in their European manner, and every sentiment of enmity was instantly dismissed on both