The Moghul Part 105

"We use muskets too. But frankly they're often more trouble than they're worth. They're c.u.mbersome and inaccurate, and while you're reloading and priming your matchlock a Rajput archer will put half a dozen arrows through you. Infantry here normally is one-third matchlock men and two-thirds archers. If you're going to be any help to us, Captain, you'll need to learn to use a bow."

Jadar stopped and turned to look at Shirin. Her eyes were fluttering with fatigue. "But I forget my manners. You must have some rest while we teach the _feringhi _how to fight. Perhaps the best thing would be to clear a tent for you at the rear of the _gulal bar_, near the workshops. And the English captain can stay there too," Jadar laughed.

"So I can watch him practice his bow." He glanced back at Hawksworth and his eyes froze on the pearl earring. "I see you're a _khan_ now, as well as an amba.s.sador. Congratulations. If Arangbar can make you a _khan_, I can surely make you an archer."

Jadar motioned to the eunuchs, who came forward and escorted Shirin through the rear doorway of the compound. Hawksworth was watching her leave, praying for sleep himself, when Jadar's voice brought him back.

"Let me begin by explaining our Indian bow to you, Captain. I think it's probably quite different from the English bow you described."

Jadar turned to Vasant Rao and motioned toward his quiver, a flat leather case hanging from a strap over one shoulder. It was covered with gold embossing and held both his bow and his arrows. "You know we have a proverb: the sword is better than the katar, the spear is better than the sword; the arrow better than the spear. I've heard Muslims claim the bow and arrow were first given to Adam by the archangel Gabriel." Jadar paused while Vasant Rao took out his bow and pa.s.sed it over. "Now, the first thing you need to learn is how to string this.

It's more difficult than you might suppose, since a bow is reflexed, curved back around the opposite way when unstrung. It's stressed against the strung position to give it more weight on the pull." Jadar examined the bow for a moment. "In fact, you can tell how much use a bow has had by the way it's bent when unstrung. The original curve in this bow is almost gone, which means it's had a lot of use. Here hold it for a moment."

Hawksworth grasped the bow in his hand. It was some four feet long, shaped in a wide curve with the ends bent back. The grip was velvet, with a gold-embossed design on the inner side.

"You say your English bows are made of wood, but I find that difficult to believe. This one is a composite, a mango-wood core with strips of buffalo horn glued over the outside. And the outer curve is lined with catgut to give it even more force. That's why this bow had to be sealed on the outside with leather. We use leather or lacquer to protect the glue from the dampness of the monsoon. The string, by the way, is a silk skein with a crisscross binding at the center."

"How do you string it?"

Jadar grinned as he took back the bow. "It's not easy. If you have to string a bow while riding, you hook one end between the stirrup and the instep of your foot and brace it backward against your knee. But usually we bend it over our back." He took the string in his hand and slipped the bow around his waist. Then he flipped it against his back and pulled its free end over his left shoulder, inverting the curve and hooking the string in a single motion. It was done in an instant.

"There. But I've made it look easier than it is. You should practice.

And it would also be well if you could learn to string a bow and shoot from horseback."

"Horseback!"

"All hors.e.m.e.n use a bow."

"How can you possibly hit anything from horseback?"

"Practice. A good Rajput archer can shoot as well from horseback as standing. The Uzbeks shoot better." As Jadar spoke he was extracting a heavy ring from inside his cloak. One side of the ring was a green emerald, flat and square and half an inch wide.

"This is a _zihgir_, a bow ring, to protect your thumb when you draw.

It also increases your range."

He pushed the emerald ring over his thumb, notched an arrow into the string, and drew it back effortlessly, holding the thin bamboo arrow in position with a touch of his forefinger. The whole sequence had taken less than a second. Hawksworth found himself staring in admiration.

"By the way," Jadar turned to Vasant Rao, "show him how you shoot under a shield."

The Rajput turned to one of Jadar's guards, whose shield was hanging loosely from a shoulder strap. He took the shield and slipped it onto his wrist. It was circular, a quarter inch thick and about two feet in diameter, and curved like a wide bowl. The front was figured with a silver ensign and in the center were four steel nailheads, which secured the handgrips on the back.

"That shield's one of the best. It's made with cured rhino

hide and toughened with lacquer. You hold it by those two straps attached inside, there in the center." Jadar pointed as Vasant Rao held out the back of the shield. "Notice the straps are large and loose. So when you want to shoot, you can slip your hand through and slide the shield up your wrist, like he's doing now. Then your hand extends out beyond the rim and you can hold the grip of the bow. But remember you'll have no protection when shooting, so you'll learn to shoot fast or you won't live long in a battle. Here, try the shield."

Hawksworth took the shield and gripped the leather thongs on the back.

"It's light. How much protection does it give?"

"A buffalo-hide shield is really only effective against arrows, but a rhino-hide shield like this one will usually deflect musket fire. We'll find a rhino shield for you somewhere." Jadar rose to leave.

"Incidentally, after seeing how you handle that bow, I think I'd better a.s.sign you to the guards stationed back with the _zenana_. That should keep you well out of the battle. I don't want my first English amba.s.sador dead just yet." He fingered his long pearl necklace and studied Hawksworth. "You may be interested to know my reports say the Imperial army will reach us in two days. Tomorrow I plan to poison all the tanks and water wells within twenty _kos _east of here, forcing them to attack immediately. I hope you'll be ready."

He turned and was gone.

Hawksworth awoke at noon the following day to discover work had begun on fortification of the camp. He left Shirin sleeping and walked to the eastern perimeter, where the heavy cannon were being drawn into position. As he paused to study one of the cannon, he found himself comparing it with the European design. It looked to be a six-inch bore, with a molded iron barrel strengthened by bra.s.s hoops shrunk around the outside. It was bolted onto its own carriage, a flat base supported by four solid wooden wheels, and pulled by a team of ten white bullocks yoked in pairs. Cotton ropes almost two inches in diameter were tied

around the breech, looped beneath the axles and then through a heavy iron ring on the front of the mount, extending forward to hooks on the yokes of the bullocks.

While their drivers whipped the animals forward, a crowd of moustachioed infantry in red and green tunics cl.u.s.tered around the gun carriages pushing. A drummer in an orange cloak sat astraddle the breech of the cannon beating cadence for the other men on two large drums strapped along each side of the barrel. A large bull elephant trailed behind, heavy padding on his forehead, and whenever the gun carriage bogged, the elephant would be moved forward to shove the breech with his head.

As the cannon were rolled into position, some fifteen feet apart, they were being linked to each other with heavy ropes of twisted bull hide the size and strength of metal chain, to prevent cavalry from riding through and cutting down the gunners. After the hide ropes were camouflaged with brush, a leather screen was placed behind the breech of each gun to protect the gunners when it fired.

Hawksworth counted approximately three hundred cannon along the camp perimeter. Firepots were being stationed behind each gun, together with linstocks and leather barrels of powder. A few bags of dirt had been piled between some of the cannon to provide protection for matchlock men. Around the cannon, men were a.s.sembling piles of four-sided iron claws, and beyond, diggers with picks and wicker baskets had begun a halfhearted effort to start construction of a trench. He studied the preparations uneasily for a moment, sensing something was wrong, and then he froze.

There was no shot. Only stacks of iron claws.

He whirled and made his way back to the munitions depot, rows of yellow-fringed tents. The shot was there waiting, in gauge ranging from two inch to ten inch, but none had been moved.

He moved on to other tents and discovered several hundred more cannon.

Some were the same gauge as those being deployed, others much larger.

All had been fitted with harness, ready to be moved, but now they stood in long rows, waiting. As he moved onto another row of tents, pushing through the swarm of men and bullocks, he discovered a vast cache of smaller cannon, thousands, also mounted on wooden carriages but small enough to be moved by a bullock, or even two men. These too were harnessed and sat untouched.

Beyond there were other rows of tents, where seven-foot- long muskets-- together with powder, bags of shot, and a wooden p.r.o.ng to rest the barrel on when firing--were now being broken out and distributed to the infantry. The men were being armed, but the camp itself was practically without fortification.

Hawksworth stood brooding about the preparations, about the Rajput horn bow he had only barely learned to use--he was finally able to hit the _todah_, practice target, a mound of earth piled near Jadar's officers'

tent, but shooting under a shield seemed impossible--and the situation began to overwhelm him. Jadar's position was becoming more hopeless by the minute.

He stared around the open camp and decided he would try to requisition as many matchlocks as possible, and perhaps also try to teach Shirin to shoot in the time remaining. If they had muskets, he told himself, perhaps they could somehow defend themselves when the Imperial army swept through the camp.

He turned and pushed his way back toward where muskets were being issued. Men were walking past him carrying heavy matchlocks, five feet in length with a barrel of rolled steel welded together end to end. The barrel was attached to the stock by a broad steel band, and both were profusely ornamented with embossing and colored enamel. Some of the muskets had wooden tripods attached to the end of the barrel.

As he approached the munitions tent, he saw Vasant Rao standing in its center, issuing orders with an easy smile, his moustache and turban as prim as though he were on muster. Behind him was a head-high pile of muskets, each wrapped in a roll of green broadcloth. Hawksworth stared at him for a moment, then pushed forward. Through the shouting mob he finally managed to catch the Rajput's arm and pull him toward the rear of the open tent.

"Why aren't the cannon being deployed?"

"But they are, Captain." Vasant Rao stroked his moustache and looked past Hawksworth's shoulder toward the next stack of matchlocks.

"But only the medium-bore guns, and even those have no shot. Nothing else has been moved."

"By medium bore I a.s.sume you mean the _gau-kash_, the ox-drawn cannon.

That's true. But these things all take time."

"You're spending what little time you have left deploying medium-bore cannon, and those with no shot! Who the h.e.l.l is in charge?"

"Prince Jadar, of course. The _gau-kash _cannon are the key to his strategy." Vasant Rao moved past Hawksworth and barked orders for the next stack of muskets to be unstrapped. Waiting infantrymen in ragged cloaks pushed forward. "Take a musket, Captain, if you want one.

They're probably of some small use. When I'm finished here, I have to check all the harness on the _fil-kash _cannon, the large guns that will be drawn into position by elephants. Then I still have to issue the _mardum-kash _guns, the small cannon that are a.s.signed to two-man teams."

"Where will this other artillery be deployed?" Hawksworth shouted toward Vasant Rao's back.

The Rajput seemed not to hear, as he paused to speak to one of the men a.s.sisting him. Then he turned and unwrapped a musket, selected a tripod, and pa.s.sed both to Hawksworth. The other man was bringing a wide velvet belt from the back of the tent, and he handed it to Hawksworth. Hanging from it were a powder flask, bullet pouch, priming horn, match cord, and flint and steel. "The prince will issue orders for deployment of the _fil-kash _and _mardum-kash _guns after they've all been harnessed."