Rao and Araish Khan, the latter was sent with Shaikh Guran to speak- to MedinI Rao with favour and kindness, and promise Shamsabgd ' in exchange for Chandirl. One or two of his trusted men got out (?).2 No adjustment of matters was reached, it is not known whether because MedinI Rao did not trust what was said, or whether because he was buoyed up by delusion about the strength of the fort.
{Jan. 2Sth) At dawn on Tuesday the 6th of the first Jumada we marched from Bahjat Khan's tank intending to assault Chandirl. We dismounted at the side of the middle-tank near the fort
(J. Bad news.)
On this same morning after reaching tnat ground, Khalifa brought a letter or two of which the purport was that the troops appointed for the East 3 had fought without consideration, been beaten, abandoned Laknau, and gone to Qanuj. Seeing that Khalifa was much perturbed and alarmed by these news, I said,4 (Persian) " There is no ground for perturbation or alarm ; nothing comes to pass but what is predestined of God. As this task (Chandirl) is ahead of us, not a breath must be drawn about what has been told us. Tomorrow we will assault the fort ; that done, we shall see what comes."
(k. Siege of Chandirl, resumed.)
The enemy must have strengthened just the citadel, and have posted men by twos and threes in the outer-fort for prudence' sake. That night our men went up from all round ; those few in the outer-fort did not fight; they fled into the citadel.
1 Presumably the one in the United Provinces. For Shamsabad in Guallar see Luard I.e. i, 286.
1 chiqti; Pers. trs. bar amad &n<i, also in some MSS. nami bar drnad; Mems. P-376, "averse to conciliation"; Minis, ii, 329, " s'/levirent contre cette proposition.'''' So far I have not found Babur using the verb chiqmaq metaphorically. It is his frequent verb to express "getting away ", "going out of a fort". It-would be a short step in metaphor to understand here that Medini's men '' got out of it", i. e. what Babur offered. They may have left the fort also ; if so, it would be through dissent.
' I.0.2I7, f.231, inserts here what seems a gloss, " Ta in ja Farsifarmuda" {.gufta, said). As Babur enters his speech in Persian, it is manifest that he used Per.sian to conceal the bad news.
