sides.  At the same time that commander sent for his own palky, made him sit in it, and he was sent to the camp.  M. Law, unwilling to see or to be seen, in that condition, shut up the curtains of the palky for fear of being recognized by any of his friends at camp, but yet some of his acquaintances, hearing of his having arrived, went to him; these were Mir Abdulla and Mustapha Ali Khan.  The Major, who had excused him from appearing in public, informed them that they could not see him for some days, as he was too much vexed to receive any company.  Ahmed Khan Koreishi, who was an impertinent talker, having come to look at him, thought to pay his court to the English by joking on this man’s defeat—­a behaviour that has nothing strange [in it] if we consider the times in which we live and the company he was accustomed to frequent; and it was in that notion of his, doubtless, that with much pertness of voice and air he asked him this question:  ’And Bibi Lass,[119] where is she?’ The Major and the officers present, shocked at the impropriety of the question, reprimanded him with a severe look and very severe expressions.  ‘This man,’ they said, ’has fought bravely, and deserves the attention of all brave men; the impertinences which you have been offering him may be customary amongst your friends and your nation, but cannot be suffered in ours, who has it for a standing rule never to offer an injury to a vanquished foe.’  Ahmed Khan, checked by this reprimand, held his tongue, and did not answer a word.  He tarried about one hour more in his visit, and then went away much abashed; and although he was a commander of importance, and one to whom much honour had always been paid, no one did speak to him any more, or made a show of standing up at his departure.  This reprimand did much honour to the English; and it must be acknowledged, to the honour of those strangers, that as their conduct in war and battle is worthy of admiration, so, on the other hand, nothing is more modest and more becoming than their behaviour to an enemy, whether in the heat of action or in the pride of success and victory.  These people seem to act entirely according to the rules observed by our ancient commanders and our men of genius.”

Gholam Husain Khan says the victory was decided by the English; the following quotation from Major Carnac’s Letter to the Select Committee at Calcutta, dated the 17th of January, 1761, shows how the courage of the British forces saved them from a great disaster.

“It gives me particular pleasure to inform you that we have not lost a man in the action, but a few of the Nawab’s troops who had got up near our rear suffered considerably from the explosion of one of the French tumbrils.  It seems the enemy had lain a train to it in hopes of it’s catching while our Europeans were storming the battery, but fortunately we were advanced two or three hundred yards in the pursuit before it had effect, and the whole shock was sustained by the foremost of the Nawab’s troops who were blown up to the number of near four hundred, whereof seventy or eighty died on the spot."[120]

Law continues:—­