t the country, and
in January, 1761, found himself near the town of Bihar. He had 35 to
40 thousand cavalry, maintained chiefly by plunder, but his only
musketeers and artillery were those commanded by Law, i.e. 125
Europeans and 200 sepoys, with 18 guns of small calibre. The
British commander, Major Carnac, had 650 Europeans and 5 to 6
thousand sepoys, with 12 guns. Mir Kasim had some 20,000 cavalry,
and the same number of musketeers, all good troops, for "everybody
was paid in the army of Kasim Ali Khan."[114]

On the 14th of January, scouts brought word of the approach of the
English. The Emperor consulted Law, who advised a retreat, but he
was not deficient in courage, and determined to fight. The next day
was fought the battle of Suan.[115]

"At the dawn of day we heard that the enemy were on
the march, and that they would quickly appear. No disposition
of our army had yet been made by Kamgar Khan,
who, in fact, troubled himself very little about the matter.
It was at first decided to re-enter the camp, so I put my
men as much as possible under shelter behind a bank, along
which I placed my guns in what I thought the most useful
positions. About 6 or 7 o'clock the enemy were seen
advancing in good order, crossing a canal[116] full of mud and
water, the passage of which might have been easily contested
had we been ready soon enough; but everything was neglected.
For some time we thought the enemy were going
to encamp by the canal, but, seeing that they were still
advancing, the order was given to go and meet them. The
whole army was quickly out of the camp, divided into
several bodies of cavalry, at the head of which were, on their
elephants, the Emperor, the Generalissimo Kamgar Khan,
and other principal chiefs. Scarcely were we out of the camp
when we were halted to await the enemy, everything in the
greatest confusion; one could see no distinction between
right, left, and centre, nothing that had the appearance of
an army intending to attack or even to defend itself.

"An aide-de-camp brought me an order to march ahead
with all my troop, and to place myself in a position which
he pointed out, a good cannon-shot away. Abandoned to
ourselves we should have been exposed to all the fire of the
English, artillery and even to be outflanked by the enemy
and captured at the first attack. We advanced a few paces
in obedience to the order, but, seeing no one