As soon as this intelligence reached Hydur, he became violently incensed, and, moving forward, encamped within one stage of Nuggur. Then sending for his officers, he despatched them to take the forts and towns near Nuggur, while he himself, with a body of his infantry and cavalry, commanded by his bravest officers, marched and invested the fort of Nuggur. The officers Hydur had detached, had, in the mean­time, after much fighting, taken and plundered most of the towns and forts, in the neighbourhood, and those who demanded quarter were sent in troops to Hydur. While they were thus engaged, Hydur was employed day and night in the invest­ment of Nuggur; and by raising batteries, and taking up ground by degrees for the attack, he so straightened the field of action on the garrison, that it became small as the eye of a needle; and the garrison, quitting all the places they had fortified outside, retired into the fort, and manned the walls. Although the garrison had in a short time lost the power of defending themselves, their senses being dissipated and though fear for their lives and the honour of their women had taken possession of their hearts, still, in faithful performance of their duty to the Rani, (the writer always affects to speak of this lady with great disrespect) who herself behaved with as much steadiness and courage as a man, they remained stedfast at their posts, and defended themselves bravely. Nay, even although the Nawaub’s brave soldiers daily killed troops of them with their cannon, and musket balls, and the sword, and burned numbers of them with the fire of hope­lessness and despair; still, notwithstanding all this calamity and misery, the garrison continued to fight; they were killed, but not subdued. The Afghan troops, also, with great insolence did their part in aid of the fort and attacked the batteries of the besiegers repeatedly, but were always defeated; and although, in a short time, the besieged saw their field of battle still more straightened, and the field of flight and desertion appeared to them wider than the plain of the day of Judgment, still the siege was so strict and close, that they could not escape with their lives; and, being without resource, they determined that they would fight as long as they were able, and after that, by changing their clothes, try to save themselves, and penetrate to some other country.

When the Nawaub found that the town and forts in the vicinity, the commandants of which were brave men, had been conquered, and that the siege of the fort of Nuggur, defended by a woman, had been protracted to so great a length; also, that the rains, which bring distress upon man and beast, were at hand, and consequently his opera­tions must be soon brought to a close, he, on the day on which the siege had continued one year, gave his troops orders to make the assault; grant­ing them free permission to retain all their plunder, all articles of gold and silver, and likewise all hand­some Hindoo women who might be taken. The cavalry, therefore, quitting their horses, and the infantry stepping out at the charging pace,* marched up the breach, firing vollies, and, mounting the walls and bastions, made the air resound with shouts of “take and kill!”* Every one who made opposition to them became the butt of the ball and bayonet, and the food of the blood-red sword. When the manlike Rani saw her affairs in this condition, she first set her palace on fire, that is, her ornamented sleeping apartments, which had been built and beautified by her husband, Shoom Shunkur, with Chinese bricks and tiles, washed and set in gold; the interstices being gold, and the doors and walls ornamented with jewels. She next burned most of her boxes of jewellery, or beat them to pieces in an iron mortar; and then, accompanied by only two or three damsels, or slave girls, she escaped on foot by the way of a water drain,* with her life only, to Kooli Droog, five kose from Nuggur, a very strong place, surrounded by a thick forest. This place she strengthened still more, and remained there, leaving the whole of the country, treasures, and valuables, of her husband and fore­fathers to the iron grasp of the renowned Nawaub.

As soon as the Nawaub knew that the Rani had escaped, he placed a garrison in the fort of Nuggur and immediately followed her steps, and invested the mountain fort, with every care and caution, and closely besieged it. The siege continued for some time; but, at length, after a month’s resistance, when the garrison had been completely subdued by the bravery of Hydur’s troops, they surrendered the hill to the Nawaub, and the Rani being taken was brought to the presence. This being effected, the Nawaub returned to the fort of Nuggur, and put the Rani in prison, and afterwards, placing her in a meeana or palankeen, he despatched her by the route of Sura to Seringaputtun. He then, with the greatest pomp and display of force, and at a fortunate moment, made his entry into the fort of the capital of Bednore, bestowing honour on the seat of Government; and for fifteen days he held a banquet, during which season of festivity he enjoyed the sound of music and the abundance of good things provided for the feast. He then gave to the poor, the religious, the musicians, and dancing women, presents of gold and silver orna­ments, valuable cloths, and shawls. Also, to the brave chiefs of his army, and his soldiers, who had distinguished themselves by their gallantry, and had perilled their lives in this conquest, besides what they obtained in the assault of the fort, which, by Hydur’s orders, was what they could take, of heaps of gold and silver, valuable stuffs, jewels, pearls, arms of all kinds, and a great number of beautiful women, the value of all which was sufficient to place them above all wordly wants, to these valiant men he now again gave costly presents and honorary dresses, gold bracelets, pearl necklaces, jewelled gorgets, splendid swords, and lastly, jageers or fiefs (for conditional service), according to their rank and respective capacities. Hydur likewise selected a man of the name of Oojni, a Kolur, an old servant of his, and an intelligent able man, and, having given him the title of Raja Ram, committed the charge of Nuggur to him, giving him orders to repair the fort, and its defences; and, having bestowed on it the name of Hydur Nuggur, he again entered his tents.