a ditch. The small garrison was hastily provisioned with some merchandise in sacks, which had been brought by merchants from the Konkan, and abandoned where it lay when they fled on hearing of the approach of the stranger; but the sacks contained salt, not grain. Ala-ud-din meanwhile captured the Brahmans and principal merchants of Deogir and plundered the city, giving out that his troops were no more than the advance-guard of an army of 20,000 Musalmans, which was following him. Ramdeo was now seriously alarmed and opened negotiations with Ala-ud-din. He pointed out to him that the army of Deogir would soon return to the capital and would annihilate the invaders, and that if any escaped they would certainly be cut off by the Rajas of Malwa, Khandesh and Gondwana. Ala-ud-din, who was well aware of the perilous nature of his enterprise, agreed to depart within a fortnight, holding his captives meanwhile as a guarantee for a ransom of 50 maunds of gold, several maunds of pearls, and some valuable stuffs, in addition to 40 elephants, some thousands of horses, and the plunder which he had already collected from the city. In the meantime, Shankar Deo had heard of his father's plight and was returning to the city by forced marches. The treaty had just been concluded when news arrived that he was within six miles of Deogir. Ramdeo sent a message to his son, ordering him not to attack the "Turks," who were terrible men, as he had just concluded a treaty with them. Shankar Deo, whose army outnumbered that of the invaders by two to one, disregarded his father's orders and sent a message to Ala-ud-din ordering him to restore all the plunder that he had taken and leave the kingdom. Ala-ud-din disgraced the messengers by parading them through his camp with their faces blackened, and then, leaving Malik Nusrat with a thousand men to watch Deogir, marched against Shankar Deo. The fight was fiercely contested, and the Musalmans were on the point of retiring, when Malik Nusrat left Deogir without orders and came to his leader's assistance. The Hindus, seeing a fresh force of Musalmans, believed it to be the army of 20,000 horse of which Ala-ud-din had spoken, and broke and fled. Ala-ud-din then returned to the siege of the citadel, put his captives to death, and paraded a number of Ram Deo's relatives, who had been captured in the battle, in chains before the fortress. Ram Deo was on the point of applying for assistance to the neighbouring Hindu chieftains
