Whilst the Rohillah Princes were assembling, Shudjah-ed-dowlah had sent secret assurances to the sons of D8ndy-qhan, “That he had no business with either their family or their dominions, which were on the other side of the Ganga; but that it was only on condition that they would remain quiet, without interfering by their assistance to others; else, they might reckon upon their falling in the same fire that would be The message remains unattended to. kindled to consume the others.” But this message made little impression on them; and those senseless men, instead of listening to Hafyz-rahmet’s advice, and paying their share of the money he had so long ago stipulated for them, were, on the contrary, averse to any accommodation; and preferring their money to any other consideration, they were exciting the others to a war. And this was the general opinion of the Rohillah Princes, who being in general young, ignorant, and proud of their bodily strength and valour, preferred war to a payment, and even exhorted the others to reject all thoughts of an accommodation, pretexting their inability to pay, and describing the ruinous state of their country. It was in vain that Hafyz-rahmet was preaching, “That they would never be able to stand before the fire of the Frenghees; that it would produce clouds of smoke out of their breasts, and that of their families; and that they would be obliged to run away from the field of battle, and to lose their characters as soldiers.” All that produced no convic­tion. Doubtless it was because the Rohillahs having been guilty of an infinity of cruelties and extortions towards the inhabitants of Hindostan, it was high time that they should, in their turn, experience to the full all the violences which they had hitherto committed upon others. The time appointed by the Omnipotent Avenger was come; nor was it in their power to retard it by a single moment. Blinded by their own ignorance and prejudices, those senseless men thought only of taking the field and coming to a battle. Shudjah-ed-dowlah, informed of their obstinacy, put himself at the head of his own victorious troops, and with an artillery equally well served and numerous, he marched into their country, accompanied by the English troops, which were commanded by General Barker, and he commenced ravaging all that tract of ground. Hafyz-rahmet, finding that his countrymen were bent on war, exhorted them at least to assemble betimes, and to march to his asistance with all their forces. He applied especially to the sons of D8ndy-qhan, who put him off with fair promises which they did not intend to fulfil. Some came to rendezvous only with a small force, and some sent only promises of arriving in a few days; and by this time Shudjah-ed-dowlah had already advanced in the heart of the country, and was close upon Hafyz-rahmet. This Rohillah Prince finding himself hard pressed, resolved to oppose the enemy with what force he had at hand, whether of his own, or of some Rohillah Princes and Chieftains, that had now joined him, and these did not amount to less than fifty or sixty thousand men. These troops he placed in a well chosen post that had in front a small deep river, with lofty crooked banks covered with brambles, and with a quantity of thorny trees; behind this front he placed his artillery as he could afford, for it was an object of contempt for the enemy. The latter very little intimidated by this order of battle, turned the front of the Rohillah post, and passed that little deep river by the right and left. The combat commenced, on one hand, by Shudjah-ed-dowlah’s Talingahs, com­manded mostly by eunuchs of merit, and on the other, by the English Talingahs, all old troops, accustomed to face the enemy, being Battle, in which the Rohillahs are totally ruined. commanded by Captains and Majors, flushed with victories, and all of them Officers of experience, and men of abilities as well as courage. The engagement commenced by the artillery of the English, which these people have the art to serve with so much expertness and expedition, that nothing can prevent its destructive effects, but a particular interposition of Providence, and an express miracle, wrought instantly; nor could it be expected that such an undisciplined, disobedient rabble as can be collected in India, would face such a rain of fire, as might be poured by the English. This is as much as could be expected from the troops of Iran, who accustomed to advance and to retreat only by order of their Commanders, and mercilessly chastised whenever they shewed any delay or backwardness in action, were equal to an attack on such formidable enemies as those strangers. Such exertions could not be expected from the undisciplined Rohillahs, and in fact they were swept in shoals by that dreadful artillery, lost vast numbers of men, were soon thrown into a complete disorder, and fled in crowds towards the fields, but in reality towards the regions of eternity. Hafyz-rahmet, without being dismayed by the slaughter that surrounded him, stood his ground with a firmness and an intrepidity that did him honor. He was followed everywhere by a number of faithful men, all resolved to shed their blood in his company, and he was seen wherever the danger called for his presence, until at last a ball of cannon came, pierced his heroical breast through and through, and parted Bravery of Hafyz-rahmet their General, who is slain. his soul from his body. Those who on his example stood yet their ground, no sooner saw him fall than they gave themselves up to despondency, and quitting the field of battle they fled on all sides, and joined those that had already preceded them. Shudjah-ed-dowlah seeing that victory had declared for his troops, alighted from his elephant, and spreading a carpet, he inclined himself profoundly before the Lord of victories, to whom he made a short prayer in thanksgiving for so signal a success. He was yet prostrated, when the head of Hafyz-rahmet was brought to him, and the indentity of it having been ascertained, he pros­trated himself a second time; but one of his Generals, who had known Hafyz-rahmet, producing a handkerchief to wipe the earth and dirt from its face, he was stopped short by these words: “Let it remain as it is,” interrupted Shudjah-ed-dowlah. “That dirt and mire on that face are so much ornament to my own. I return thanks to God Almighty, that I have to-day taken a full revenge for the perpetual insolencies aud endless cruelties which this bloody barbarous race has been continually offer­ing to my father, to my family, and to an infinity of faithful believers.” Whilst he was speaking, Zabeta-qhan, who had still a body of a thousand men, was close to him. But this severing of Hafyz-rahmet’s head, which had been ordered by Providence in punishment of the numberless injuries offered by that undisciplined nation to the people of God, seemed to be the signal for their losing courage totally, and for dispersing heedlessly. A panic seized the whole race, and spreading itself through all ranks, without distinction of age or sex, it worked upon their constitution as a vertiginous giddiness, which prevented their entertaining any thoughts of ever joining together, or of assembling again to any effect. Shudjah-ed-dowlah, after this signal victory, being become the master of the country, spread his victorious troops far and near, with orders to put to the sword every Rohillah that should appear in arms, or did not submit, and meanwhile he turned his thoughts towards quieting the country, bringing it under order and controul, and annexing it to his own dominions. The rest Shudjah-ed-dowlah takes possession of the Rohillah country. of the Rohillah nation, struck with terror and dismay, submitted, and all their Chiefs reluctantly sent their obeisance. These were Fateh-ollah-qhan, with the rest of D8ndy-qhan’s family, Muhabbet-qhan, with his brothers, sons of Hafyz-rahmet, and Fäiz-ollah-qhan, son to Aaly-mahmed-qhan-Rohillah, the founder of that principality, of whom we have so often sopken in the first volume. All those Princes who had retired with a confused multitude within the mountains of Camä8, unable to bear the water and air of that climate, and overcome by the difficulties of their situation, repaired to Shudjah-ed-dowlah’s camp, with their principal officers, and acknowledged his sovereignty. But Fäiz-ollah-qhan, finding himself followed by the sons of D8ndi-qhan, and Hafyz-rahmet, Princes that had long served under Aaly-mahmed-Rohillah, his father, to whom they owed their fortunes, he conceived hopes of being better attended by the fugitives of his nation, and he retired to the foot of the mountains, with a design to live by making courses, and ravaging the enemy’s country. Luckily for him that he was brought to his senses by Fate of the Rohillah Princes. the English Commanders, who interposed their mediation, and presented him to Shudjah-ed-dowlah, with whom they had stipu­lated some conditions in his behalf; for they obtained for him a certain tract of Rohillah ground at the very extremeties of that country, which stretched at the foot of the mountains, and yielded a revenue of about ten or fifteen lacs. Thither he retired with the remains of his demolished nation, and there he applied him­self to the improvement of the country, and there he now lives with dignity and splendour. The rest of the Rohillah Princes, so far from being so much favourised by fortune, were left unnoticed, and even without a subsistence; and some who were suspected of knowing of concealed hoards and treasures, suffered every hardship in a long confinement. I, the poor man, have seen at Lucknow most of the sons of Hafyz-rahmet and D8ndy-qhan, and it is from their own mouths I have learned their own history. It was a little after Shudjah-ed-dowlah’s death, and at the begin­ning of the reign of his son, Assef-ed-dowlah, of whom we shall have occasion to speak in a little time. It was at Lucknow that I became fully acquainted with them all, and also with a number of the principal persons that had a share in that expedition. But the most illustrious and valuable amongst these Rohillah Princes was undoubtedly Muhabbet-qhan, younger brother to Ynaïet-qhan, which latter had once endeared himself to Shudjah-ed-dowlah by being his companion of arms in his expedition against Azim-abad. This young Prince seemed by his figure as well as by his character, to be worthy of dominions, or at least to deserve a better fortune; but times were too hard and insensible, or at least too blind to pay a due attention to so much merit, and he was suffered to linger upon a small pension, quite inadequate to his rank in life*, and that too at the very time when Fäiz-ollah-qhan was complimented with a country that cannot yield less than twenty lacs of rupees—he whose paternal possessions in the life-time of the Rohillah power never did afford above five lacs a year. A strange perverseness this and a strange infatuation of the times indeed! which, blind to real merit, and blundering upon incapacity and meanness of character, seem intent only on affording regrets and surprise to the sensible observer!—Verses:

“Fortune, that known flatterer of the vile, has but one eye,

And that, too, is at the top of her head;

So that whenever she has catched a Jack-ass by the tail,

She cannot distinguish it is a Jack-ass’s tail,

But after having raised it so high as to be at the top of her head.

When, finding her mistake, she drops the tail at once,

And down falls the beast from high, to break its neck by the fall,

This done, the Cyclope stretches her hand for another.