14
A LITTLE RAJPUT HERO.
The battle raged "loud and long" at Gheria in 1740 between Sarfaraz Khan, Nawab of Bengal, who would not give up his vice-regal throne and Muhammad Au whom the Emperor of Delhi, displeased with Sarfaraz, had nominated to it. Sarfaraz fought like a lion. When surrounded by the enemy in a part of the battle field, he on the back of his war-elephant was the target of a hundred muskets and his driver had offered to exchange places with him, himself occupying the seat of honour in the howdah (protected seat on the back of the animal) and giving him his on the neck, so that he, the driver, might draw all the attention of the enemy to himself, he had smilingly said, "No, my good man, your master is not afraid of death." But his days were numbered; he was killed in the fight.
It is not, however, of him that I meant to speak. The subject of the story is Jalim Singh, son of Bejoy Singh, a Rajput captain in Sarfaraz Khan’s army. Jalim was only nine years old, but like Casabianca he was "a creature of heroic blood." He had accompanied his father to the field and rode his small pony behind him, his
