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For all these reasons King Ferdinand had determined to make another grand attempt upon this warrior city, and for this purpose had summoned to the field his most powerful chivalry. It was in the month of May that the king sallied from Cordova at the head of his army. He had twelve thousand cavalry and forty thousand foot-soldiers armed with crossbows, lances, and arquebuses.
How it came about I never clearly learned, for in the heat of battle one rarely sees more than the things close at hand. Some said one thing, some another, but this I reckon was the most likely way of it. His regiment was rather exposed, and on the left flank stretched some rolling ground, unsuitable for cavalry but affording good cover for foot-soldiers.
Sanjaya said, "When the forenoon of that day had passed away, O Bharata, and when the destruction of cars, elephants, steeds, foot-soldiers and horse-soldiers, proceeded on, the prince of Panchala engaged himself in battle with these three mighty car-warriors, viz., Drona's son, Salya, and the high-souled Kripa.
The first to come were a host of richly armed and gayly attired light cavalry, mounted on fleet and fiery Barbary steeds. Heavily armed cavalry followed, and then a strong force of foot-soldiers, until an army was drawn up on the plain.
Slaying men adorned with steel coats of mail, along with their horses and foot-soldiers, the chief of the Magadhas caused these to be pressed down into the earth, like thick reeds pressed down with crackling sounds, by means of that mighty and foremost of elephants belonging to him.
As illustrating a period of transition in which heavy armoured troopers each one a human iron-clad fortress moving at speed and furnished with the most formidable portable artillery then known could overcome the resistance of almost any number of foot-soldiers in light marching gear and armed with the antiquated pike, the affair may be worthy of a moment's attention; and for this improvement itself now as obsolete as the slings and cataphracts of Roman legions the world was indebted to Maurice.
That force, swelling with cars and steeds and teeming with foremost of foot-soldiers, struck by Pandya, began to turn round like the potter's wheel. Like the wind dispersing a mass of congregated clouds, Pandya, with his well shot arrows, began to disperse that force, destroying its steeds and drivers and standards and cars and causing its weapons and elephants to fall down.
Large bands of foot-soldiers, myriads upon myriads of steeds, large number of car-warriors, and many huge elephants, have been slain. Many heroes also, with standards and weapons, and with armour and attire and ornaments, and endued with perseverance and possessed of high birth and good conduct, have been slain in battle by Partha who is never fatigued with exertion.
But instead of maintaining his position in order to cover the foot-soldiers, Narr' Havas turned abruptly to the right, as though he wished himself to be crushed by Hamilcar. His horsemen outstripped the elephants, which were slackening their speed; and all the horses, stretching out their unbridled heads, galloped at so furious a rate that their bellies seemed to graze the earth.
And in this middle division marched Vasudeva and Dhananjaya. Amongst them were steeds ridden by brave warriors, and five thousand elephants, and crowds of cars all around. And foot-soldiers in thousands, that were all brave and armed with bows, swords, and maces, marched behind them, as thousands marched before them.
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