Some thousands of Marhattas, who had escaped the sword, and were rambling about without any Commanders, were attacked by the peasants, who, incited not only by that cowardly dis­position which is innate with their vile nature, but also by the remembrance of what they had suffered from those freebooters, did not spare them, but began plundering, stripping, and killing as many as they could come at. Shimshir-bahadyr, half-brother to Baladji-räo, by a dance-woman, was by the assistance of a body of plunderers, ferried over the stream that parts this world from eternity; and this being the last of the Commanders of character among the Marhattas, it may be said that not one of them escaped with life. Amongst the inferior officers, only Petil-mahadji-sindiah and Holcar-malhar found means to get off; the latter, after an infinity of adventures, contrived to reach Malva, from whence he proceeded to P8nah, to be the harbinger of disastrous tidings. Baladji-räo, amazed at so shameful and bloody a defeat, would not survive it. He pined away with sorrow and discontent, and in five months and a few days after, he went to join his son and brother. Some days before this battle, a certain saint of theirs, called SAd-dë8, but surnamed Dudjutt, who resided at Aoreng-abad, went in haste to join his prototype, as if to shew his followers, then in the field, the way to the regions of hell.

It ought to be remarked, that Baladji-räo, some days before his death, had directed that the shares, usually allowed to the washerman, the writer, the barber, the carpenter, the plough-smith, and some others, upon the crop raised in each village, should be seized for his use, which, in so extensive an Empire, amounted to no inconsiderable sum. But Providence, that watchful mother of the injured, did not suffer him to enjoy the fruits of his covetousness; for he died at a time when this regulation had not extended to the distant parts of his dominions.

Oh ye powerful, that injure the innocent,

How long is your reign likely to last?

The Abdali-king, after so important a victory, gave some repose to his army, and then marched into the territory of Delhi, where he spent a few days, and where he bestowed the Empire of Hindostan on Shah-aalam, alias Aaly-goher; the office of Vezir, on Shudjah-ed-döwlah; and the dignity of Prince of Princes on Nedjib-ed-döwlah. He recommended them to each other, exhorted them to union and concord, and ordered that Nedjib-ed-döwlah should reside in Shah-djehan-abad to take care of Mirza-djuvan-baqht’s person, with injunctions to send as soon as possible for Shah-aalem, his father, who was then wag­ing war in Bengal. He likewise sent for Shudjah-ed-döwlah, and recommended him to be submissive to Shah-aalem, whom he was to bring over and assist with all his might. After this injunction, he made him a present of his own arms, with a horse and a superb qhylaat, and dismissed him to his principality. The Monarch, after having dispatched some other business, The victori­ous Abdali-monarch retires to dominions, which detained him as far as the sixteenth of Shaaban, quitted the gardens of Shaleh-mar, in the environs of Delhi, and set out for Candahar by continual marches, leaving by the way a Deputy-Governor at Lahor. It was in the year 1174.

After his departure Shudjah-ed-döwlah set out for A8d in the blessed month of Ramazan, and he was advancing by con­tinual marches, when there happened an event that deserves to be mentioned. One of his friends, called Sëid Saleh, surnamed the Veridic, who was then with him, used to recount to me that, as Shudjah-ed-döwlah was advancing to join the Abdali-king, he met, about the town of Secandarah, a detachment of a kind of men different from the Marhattas, (these last having made their Singular appearance of a young man, slain. appearance only three or four months after) and had an engage­ment with them; but my friend having occasion to pass that way sometime after, he found the plain covered with bodies half eaten or rotten, amongst which he was surprised to see a body which seemed to be betwixt twenty-five and thirty. It had on a large pair of whiskers, a beard close shaved, with a clean hangreca upon its back, and shewed a freshness of complexion quite exempt from any putrefaction. My friend was then with Mollah, or Doctor Abbass, the Mazenderanian, and three or four others, who were as much amazed as himself. Nine months after, when Shudjah-ed-döwlah was returning to his dominions after having taken leave of the Abdali-king, the army chanced to pass again over that same field, at which time my friend had an opportunity of looking over that plain again, where amongst a quantity of bones with which he was amazed to see again that same young man, with his clothes on, and the body as entire as ever, without its having lost either beard or whiskers. Mollah Abbass, astonished at what he saw, exclaimed that this young man surely must have been a Sëyd*, and sending for some pioneers, as the army was so near, he ordered a fosse to be made for him. Some of the by-standers, who had wind­ing sheets* in their bags, wanted to strip the young man, and to put a winding sheet about him. But this was objected to by the Mollah, who observed that the body must be left unstripped, as the clothes it had on were its proper winding sheet. This being agreed to, they all joined in prayers, and then com­mitted it to the earth.

“Who could guess that in the depths of the sea,

A cornelian should be found close to a heap of pebbles?”

To return to our narrative. Shudjah-ed-döwlah, without tarrying at Lucknow, came out and marched down to Sëyd-p8r, close to Benares, as we have already mentioned in a former volume, whilst Shah-aalem himself was quitting the neighbourhood of Azim-abad to come to the same town. There Shudjah-ed-döwlah having paid his respects to the Prince, took him to Djo8sy, over against Ilah-abad, where he threw a bridge of boats upon the Ganga, and crossed over with him on the fifth Zilhidj of that same year; after which he encamped at Ilah-abad, which he made the centre of his victorious standards. From thence he advanced to Djadj8, where he took up his winter quarters.. In a few days he turned away all the Marhatta col­lectors, and established throughout the whole Anterbid Shah-aalem’s government; after which, as soon as the rainy season was over, he decamped on the sixth of the second Rebi, in the year 1175, and marched to Calpy, after having appointed his favourite Minister, Beni-bahadyr, for his Deputy all over his dominions. From Calpy, which he took out of the hands of the Marhattas, he carried the Emperor beyond the Djumnah, where he took some rest at the fort of Djehansi, and as the Marhatta Governor refused to surrender, he was forced to it, after his fort had been battered for some time. Hitherto Shudjah-ed-döwlah had acted as a Vezir, but he had not yet received the investiture of that high office. This ceremony took place on the twenty-first Shudjah-ed-döwlah appointed Vezir to Shah-aalem. of that month, at which time he received from the Emperor a qhylaat of seven pieces, with four plates of jewels and gems, and these were followed by a chaplet of pearls which was thrown over his neck, whilst he was presented with the casket of Vezir, which was of gold, studded with jewels. Three days after, his son, Mirza-amani, was honoured with the superintendence of the Gh8sl-qhana, or of the private apartments. Nor is it our intention to say nothing more of this Prince; but it becomes necessary at present, that we should attend for a while to the affairs of Decan.

We have already mentioned that Baladji-räo having pined away in despiar for the destruction of his armies, had gone to join his brother and his eldest son. The Crown, therefore, devolved to his youngest son, Mad8-räo, then a child, as did the management of affairs, to his brother, Ragonat-räo. This happened at the end of the year 1174. The next year his neighbour, Nizam-aaly-qhan, now surnamed the second Nizam-el-mulk, expecting to make his profit of that minority, put himself with his brother, Selabet-djung, at the head of a numerous army; and for some secret reasons which have not transpired, he set out from the Fortress of Beder where he had been for sometime encamped, and marched directly to Aoreng-abad. But he was prevented by Ragonat-rao, who taking the young Mad8-rao with him, quitted P8nah at the head of a numerous army, and marched to Shah-gur, where the two armies came in sight of each other; and much skirmishing took place for several days, when Nizam-aaly, leaving his heavy baggage and other impedements at Aoreng-abad, set out with a firm intention to push for P8nah. It was the 23rd of that month, in the same year. The Mar­hattas threw themselves in his way, but he led them, beating over and over as far as within seven cosses distance from that Capital. There was in his way a town called T8tca, upon the shore of the Ganga of Decan*, a place that contained a Gentoo temple, extremely revered, and where the Marhattas had raised many noble buildings. These he levelled with the ground, breaking the idol itself to pieces, and he was going to serve P8na in the same manner, when a defection appeared in his army. For Mir-moghol, surnamed Nassyr-el-mulk, sixth son of Nizam-el-mulk’s, having conceived some disgust against his brothers, joined his concerns with Radjah Ram-chunder, a Com­mander of importance in Nizam-aaly’s army, and both departed and joined the Marhattas. This officer was shocked at the little regard shewn to the Gentoo temple, and thought his conscience concerned. This defection happened the twenty-seventh of the first Djemady, of the year 1174. The Gentoo Commander carried Nizam-aaly avails himself of these broils to force the Marhattas to a very advan­tageous
treaty. his whole brigade with him, and it was a numerous one. After this junction, matters altered considerably; and the Marhattas, who had the worst all along this campaign, now spread them­selves round the Mussulman army on the very next day, and commenced a furious cannonade. This kind of warfare not pleasing the valorous and the zealous in Nizam-aaly’s army, they advanced beyond their own artillery, and proceeded to hand-blows; when mixing with those men that fought at a distance, they stretched vast numbers of them in the field of battle, amongst which were several relations of both Madh8-räo and Ragonat-räo, which latter fought on foot that day. The Mar­hattas, sensible now that they were an undermatch for their enemies, thought proper to retreat, and to encamp at a distance, in order to consult together. They found that all their efforts had hitherto availed nothing, and that the enemy was now at seven cosses from P8nah, which he intended to set on fire; and if that comes to pass, said they, what are we fighting for? They were also much affected by a deputation of the inhabi­tants of P8nah, who asked them, whether they intended to see their habitations on fire, and to deliver their children and families to the Mussulmen? The Marhattas greatly affected by this remonstrance, as well as by their own situation, sent Ambassadors to Nizam-aaly, to treat of an accommodation. Nizam-aaly consented, and sold them a peace for several Districts, which they ceded to him from the Provinces of Aoreng-abad and Beder, to the amount of twenty-seven lacs a year. This treaty took place the sixth of the second Djemady, just one year after the Abdalies had gained that memorable victory over the Mar­hattas. Nizam-aaly, after so advantageous a peace, marched back to his Capital, and by the way he turned towards Ram-chunder’s country to punish him for his desertion. That whole tract was given up for plunder to the army, and it was completely ravaged and ruined. The rainy season setting in at this time, (and this was about the fourteenth of Zilhidj, in the year 1175) he took up his winter quarters at Beder, and that same day he confined in the citadel his brother, Selabet-djung: a confine­ment in which he lived fifteen months; after which death came Selabet-djung’s death. to his relief, and having delivered him from the confinement of his prison, it carried his soul to the spacious plains of eternity, where it let it loose. His body was buried in a corner of the Mausoleum of Shah-mahmed-m8ltani. Whilst Nizam-aaly was at Beder, he received from Aaly-goher, now styled Shah-aalem, the Qhylaat of the Government of the whole Decan, vacant by the demise of Selabet-djung, the Lord of the Kingdoms. This Qhylaat he put on with the usual ceremonies; after which he appointed Radja Pertavent, a Hedjur-bedi-brahman, who was citizen of the town of Sangmir, to be his Prime Minister, and the director of every affair of State in his dominions.