After having done all this havoc, the Marhatta General resolved to decamp. The Doäb occupied by an army, did not afford him any prospect of subsistence, and everything in the territory of the Capital was eaten up and consumed. He was urged doubtless by the necessity of assembling and enjoying all the merits of those pious and meritorious actions which he had porformed in that unfortunate Capital, by stripping it of its sacred ornaments, and by plundering the nobility and people of what little they had saved from the hands of former ravagers. Resolved to quit that neighbourhood, he deposed and confined that pageant of an Emperor, Shah-djehan, and placed in his stead Mirza-djuvan-baqht*, son to Aaly-goher, the fugitive Prince, who was then enduring distresses, and waging war in Bengal. The Vezirship he conferred on Shudjah-ed-dowlah, pluming him­self upon what he thought a piece of policy very likely to embroil the latter with the Abdaly-king. This done, he confirmed Tar8-shungar in the government of the citadel, and marched with his whole army to Cundj-p8ra, where the two Zemindars of that tract, Abdol-semed-qhan, the Abdali, and Nedjabet-qhan, the Rohillah, were encamped with commission to provide convoys for the Abdali-king’s army. This Abdol-semed-qhan is the same who fell in the hands of the Marhattas when commanding at Ser-hend, and had found means to escape; he commanded then in the mud-fort. It was in the second Rebi of the year 1174. Sedä-sy8 being arrived before that fort, surrounded immediately. As his European artillery enabled him to do a great deal of execution in a little time, Hibrahim-qhan-gardi soon made a breach, and an assault being given, both Abdol-semed-qhan and C8t8b-qhan were slain, and the place was thoroughly plundered and sacked. The Abdali-king hearing of this piece of cruelty done almost within his sight, was equally surprised and incensed; an alteration was observed in his colour. Resolved to chastise the Marhattas, he decamped, and although the rainy season was not at an end, and the Djumnah did not yet afford any ford, neverthe­less he marched, and under Shudjah-ed-döwlah’s guidance he advanced to the passage of Baqhshäiet, which is close under the walls of Shah-djehan-abad; and advancing on horseback in the water, he was followed by his whole cavalry, some fording the river, and others swimming over. His numerous army took the hint, and found means to follow with all their baggage. Seda-sy8, surprised at his daringness, and atthe quickness of the Abdalies, conceived that instead of fighting them at C8ndj-p8ra, as had been his intention, it would be better to reconnoitre for two or three days together, in order to encamp at a commodious post near to Panip8t. At this time he had no less than forty thousand effective horse, all old soldiers and picked men; but this was only the army under his own particular command, for there were three other armies, severally commanded by Holcar-malhar, Shimshir-bahadyr, and the Prince of the blood, Vasvass-räo, which last was also the Commander-in-Chief. All these were exceedingly assuming, and so proud of their past victories, as to make no account of any troops but those immediately under their own command; and every one of them seemed to reach with his fore­head to the cupola of the third heaven. We must also mention Hibrahim-qhan-gardi, who commanded twelve thousand Sepahies, armed with flint-muskets, besides some artillery mounted and served in the European manner; he belonged in particular to Seda-sy8. But what is singular, with all these numerous troops and with all their boasting, as soon as Seda-sy8’s troops began to feel the pulse of the Abdalies, in a few skirmishes, they con­ceived themselves to be an undermatch for them; and, contrary to the Marhatta custom, and to their usual method of warfare, their Generalissimo retired beyond Panip8t, where he surrounded his army with his baggage, round which he planted his cannon; and this was so very numerous that his intrenchment might have borne the appellation of a wall that vomited fire and flames. Not satisfied with that, he added another intrenchment, made up of the earth of a fossé which he ordered to be dug up immediately. And it was hardly finished, when the victorious army of the Abdalies came up, and spread everywhere round the Marhatta intrenchment; so that every day there was some engagement in which cannon with muskets and rockets, and arrows with sabres and spears, were continually brought to action, and continually held conversation together; and every day produced a deal of bloodshed. But the worst of it was, that the Abdalies, eternally roaming round the Marhatta intrenchment, did not suffer a corn of grain or a blade of grass to find its way thither; insomuch that nothing being brought to the Marhatta camp, this nation experienced for the first time the horrors of want, and learned from experience what it was that the world called distress and famine. For every part of their camp was blocked up and besieged, save their rear, which was open towards Lahor, and this too, the Abdalies found means to infest, having taken two or three convoys that were coming from thence. The Abdali-king seeing that the enemies chose rather to suffer the hard­ships of distress than to quit their intrenchment, resolved to give a general assault. It was the twenty-eighth of the second Rebi, in the year 1174. Djehan-qhan and Shah-pesend-qhan, with Nedjib-ed-döwlah, were to lead the van; Shudjah-ed-döwlah and Ahmed-qhan-bangash, with the other three Rohilla Princes, were to head the main; and the King himself, with his Vezir, Veli-qhan, surnamed Eshref-el-anvar, brought up the corps de reserve. The Marhattas, on seeing this disposition, came out of theit intrenchment and took their post a little farther, at full one arrow’s throw in the plain. The combat became furious at once, and a continual slaughter took place between the two Bloody actions between the Marhattas and the Abdalies. parties, from midday as far as the evening; so that there remained but one hour of sun-shine, when the Rohillahs, under Nedjib-ed-döwlah broke through a furious storm of muskets and rockets, and penetrated on foot within the intrenchment, where they commenced fighting with hand-blows. In this action Bel­vent-räo, nephew to Seda-sy8, and his right arm in everything, being struck by a musket-ball, fell dead from his horse; and the engagement would have been final, had not the night fallen upon the combatants, and by throwing her sable veiI between them, put it out of their power to distinguish the friend from the foe. The Rohillahs after distinguishing themselves in so glorious a manner, came out of the intrenchment and returned to their camp. It was after this furious engagement that intel­ligence came that Govind-pandett, a Marhatta General, at the head of ten or twelve thousand horse, was coming from Atava, with a large convoy of treasure and provisions; that he was already at Shah-dera, in the highroad over against Shah-djehan-abad; and that his intention was, first of all, to plunder Mahtra, and some other dependencies of Nedjib-ed-döwlah, and then to cross the Djumnah at C8ndj-p8ra, from whence he expected to join Seda-sy8’s army. The King informed of all these particulars, dispatched Atäi-qhan, and the son of the late Abdol-semed-qhan, with five thousand horse, in hopes of their inter­cepting the convoy. The two Generals departed immediately, and crossing the Djumnah at the ford of Agra and Bacshaïet they advanced to Shah-dera, where having put to the sword Tar8-shungur, the Governor, with his whole garrison, they pro­ceeded to Ghazi-eddin-nagur, a town at six cosses only from the Capital, and there also they put to the sword a body of Mar­hattas stationed on purpose to meet the convoy. Continuing their march with the utmost rapidity, they arrived at the very spot where Govind-pandett was just arrived, and falling upon him at once, they destroyed him and his whole army. After this rapid execution they cut his head, and taking possession of the convoy, they returned to the Abdaly camp. This Govind-pandett is the same man, who, having been detached from the camp at Sukur-tal, had crossed the Ganga, and ruined so much country, and had fled back again, after having received a severe check from Shudjah-ed-döwlah. This massacre happened the 29th of the second Djemady, in the year 1174.

Meanwhile the blockade of the Marhatta camp continued, The Mar­hattas block­aded in their camp, come to a pitched battle. and the besieged commenced to suffer from the immondices of all sorts, in which it necessarily abounded. The smell became insupportable; famine was already felt; numbers of poor people were daily swept away, totally famished; and a mortality also, the constant result of famine and uncleanness, was committing its ravages. Hundreds of people dropped down every day. In this extremity the besieged Generals consulted together, and it was unanimously agreed to, “That as the army was consuming itself with famine and mortality, it was better, whilst their bodily strength was yet unimpaired, to march out and fight the enemy, be the event what it would.” With this resolution they marched out. It was on a Thursday, the sixth of the second Djemady, in the year 1174 of the Hedjrah. Hibrahim-qhan-gardi marched at the head with his artillery; the rest of the army followed in order, and advanced with a slow pace towards the Abdali-camp, where the troops were mounted and ready, but where they had orders to let the Marhattas advance farther within the plain. They advanced in effect, filling the air with cries of Hari-Har, and their Moghul cavalry advanced to a skirmish with the enemy, but they were terribly handled by the Abdali van, commanded by Shudjah-ed-döwlah, by Nedjib-ed-döwlah, and by many other illustrious Commanders, whose flaming sabres had long thirsted after their prey. These having called to their assistance the Divine Disposer of victories advanced upon the enemy, whose Moghul skrimishers and Marhatta light cavalry, unable to bear a well directed fire made by the Rohillahs armed with heavy muskets, were thrown into confusion, and forced to retreat within the intrenchment; here the runaways mixing with the troops stationed there, communicated their disorder, and carried them away in their flight. Seda-sy8 and Vasvass-räo, without taking much notice of the disorder in camp, advanced to the charge, with drawn sabres, and spears couched; and falling upon Shudjah-ed-döwlah and Nedjib-ed-döwlah, a warm engagement ensued, in which the air was filled, and the Abdali army deafened, with their war-cry of Harri-Har*. The two Hindostany Princes advanced to the encounter, supported by the Abdali-king in person, who fought at the head of his troops, and exhibited amazing proofs of personal prowess. Under the eyes of such a General, every one exerted himself to the utmost. A furious engagement took place, and for full two hours there arose such a cloud of dust that none of the combatants could distinguish the earth from the heavens. From mid-day to four o’clock nothing could be heard, or seen, but a furious slaughter which was going on at an incredible rate. At that time only, the dust having subsided a little, a whole field was discovered interspersed with an infinite number of Marhattas, who had all set out in company for the region of Nothingness. They were led thither by Vas­vass-räo, the heir of the Marhatta Empire, a Prince yet in the bloom of youth and beauty, who fell by a musket-ball, and Seda-sy8, the principal General, with his bravest officers, closed the rear of that departed army. The corps de reserve was brought up by Djingo, the brave Djingo! who that day said farewell to his existence. The rest of the Generals followed promiscuously, with all their officers and soldiers; and it was in that order that this departed army at once presented itself on the frontiers of eternity. Hibrahim-qhan-gardi was taken prisoner, and for a while suffered to enjoy the pleasure of having escaped the general massacre, when an order came for his being beheaded, and that man who had made so much noise in the world, plunged at once into the abyss of eternity*. The field of battle looked like a tract sown with tulips, and as far as the sight Battle of Penip8t, where 80,000 Marhattas are destroyed. could extend, nothing could be discovered but bodies stretched at the foot of bodies, as if they had been asleep, or marshalled by art. After the battle, two and twenty thousand women, girls, and children of both sexes, some of them persons of dis­tinction and related to the most illustrious of the slain, were dis­tributed amongst the victorious, who plundered an incredible quantity of money, jewels, and fine stuffs, nor is there coming at any computation of the mighty sum. The whole of that numer­ous artillery, with two hundred thousand oxen and cows, fifty thousand horses, five hundred large elephants, and an infinity of camels and mules, fell into the hands of the victorious. The date of this mighty victory has been conserved in the chronogram of the following quartrain, by the care of the illustrious Poet Mir-g8lam-aaly, of Belgram, the same who composed the chro­nogram on the victory over of Data-sindhia. It is as follows:—

“The valiant King has put to the sword Seda-sy8, as he has already done Data.

He has finished his campaign, as he has commenced it, by a memorable victory,

And the querulous reed of the Poet has again sung:

The D8rrani-king has again gained the victory!”