Freebooter by Tim Severin

Author:Tim Severin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan

SIXTEEN

‘We’re in luck. Today there’s to be a combat of elephants in front of the emperor himself,’ Luis announced brightly when he appeared in the door of the pavilion early the following morning. ‘It’s something you should see.’

‘What about omrah Nizamuddin? When do we get to meet him?’ Hector reminded him.

‘I spent last night at the house of one of my father’s friends, and he tells me that the omrah Nizamuddin is away inspecting his estates. He won’t return for several days.’

Judging from the young man’s cheerful expression, Hector guessed that Luis had still not been told about the terrible injuries that Tavares had suffered. News of what had happened to the artilleryman might not have reached Delhi during the two months they had been on the road but, just as likely, Tavares had died of his burns while still at sea.

‘Any news about the enquiry into what happened on Ganj-i-Sawa’i?’

Luis made a dismissive gesture. ‘It’ll be weeks before any Mogul official gets round to interviewing you.’

‘What about Gibson and the others?’

‘The fawjdar will put them safely under lock and key. I doubt we’ll see them again until much later.’ He was shifting impatiently from foot to foot. ‘Unless we hurry, we’ll miss the fight, and a chance to see Aurangzeb himself.’

It took an hour of brisk walking to get from Nizamuddin’s country home to where the elephant combat was to take place – an open sandy area directly under the looming east wall of Aurangzeb’s palace-cum-fort, Lal Qila. The imperial citadel was everything that Hector had expected of ‘the ruler of the world’. It was enormous. From where he stood, the towering rampart of great blocks of red sandstone was topped with extravagant domes perched on thin columns, watch towers and turrets. He could only imagine the splendours of what lay behind such flamboyantly awe-inspiring defences.

‘Up there is where Aurangzeb watches,’ said Luis excitedly, pointing to an ornate wooden balcony projecting halfway up the wall of the fort. ‘Today’s combat will only begin once he is seated.’

They joined a crowd of onlookers gathered around the edge of the open ground. At some distance away were two very large elephants. Both animals were clearly in a bad temper, flapping their ears rapidly and shifting uneasily from foot to foot. From time to time one of them trumpeted, a shrill bellow of rage. Anklets of heavy iron chain led back to massive pegs buried deep in the ground tethering both animals safely apart. Their handlers, two groups of about a dozen men, stood off to one side; several of them carried spears.

‘What’s that low wall for?’ Jezreel asked. A section of mud-brick wall, some six feet high and thirty paces long, had been built in the open space in front of the imperial viewing gallery.

‘So that the fight takes place directly under the emperor’s view.’

‘And the towers?’

At each end of the wall was a square tower, on top of which several men could be seen holding long lances.

‘The towers are refuges for the men on foot, a place for them to escape to if something goes wrong,’ Luis told him.

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