THE BATTLE OF PANIPAT

251 the army was lost in the passage. As soon as the intel- ligence reached Bhao's ear, that a party of Durranis had crossed, he sounded the drum of retreat from Kunj- pura, and with his force of forty thousand well-mounted and veteran cavalry, and a powerful train of European artillery, under the superintendence of Ibrahim Khan THE Jl'MNA AT AGRA. Gardi, he repaired expeditiously to Panipat, which lies forty leagues from Delhi towards the west. The Abdali Shah, after crossing the river Jumna at the landing-steps of Pakpat, proceeded in a westerly direction, and commanded that Nawab Shuja-ad-daulah Bahadur and Najib-ad-daulah should pitch their tents on the left of the royal army, and Dundi Khan, Hafiz-al- Mulk, Hafiz Rahmat Khan, and Ahmad Khan Bangash on the right. As Bhao perceived that it was difficult to contend against the Durranis in the open field, by the advice of his counsellors he made a permanent encamp- ment of his troops in the outskirts of the city of Pani- pat, and having intrenched it all round with his artil-