As
the chosen leader, thus miraculously fallen from heaven on the eve of
battle, he had become so important a figure that it was impossible for
him to take up a modest position in the rear; indeed, a bullet through
the head would have been the immediate rejoinder to any such suggestion
on his part. Forced thus by circumstance into the forefront of the
battle, he turned his back to the devil and stood forth to face the deep
sea, and the great waves of British soldiers which surged across it to
the attack.
"The first thing to do," he shouted authoritatively, "is to take good
cover, so that the bullets and cannon-balls of the English cannot hit
us; and then, when they have expended their ammunition, we will shout
Allah! and charge them with the sword."
"Well spoken!" was the cry, and the order passed up and down the line.
Be assured that duffadar Faiz Talab did not fail to appropriate the
thickest and strongest wall in support of his tactical scheme.
"The next thing to do," yelled the unwilling general, "is to fire as
rapidly as possible, so as to frighten the English thoroughly, before we
sally forth and kill them." And suiting action to words Faiz Talab fired
off his twenty rounds with great rapidity in the safest possible
direction, and prayed God that he had not hit one of his own comrades.
At the same time he added a perhaps equally potent supplication, to the
effect that his comrades might not be so careless or inconsiderate in
their turn as to shoot him.
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