Storia do Mogor 354.9.1

354.9.1

The army of Shivã Jí, which had, as I have said {ante, 164), crossed the Narbadã river to the number of forty thousand horse and seven thousand infantry, penetrated into the province of Gujarãt and sacked the city of Ahmadãbãd, from which they acquired considerable treasures. The man Bahãdur Khãn, who, as I said (vide fol. 138), escaped from prison, has now been made Governor of Pelconda (Penukonda). For its defence he keeps on foot fifteen thousand soldiers and all the baggage train and victualling supplies necessary for maintaining himself in the possession of such an important fortress. Let me state here the way in which this fortress fell into the hands of the Shivã Jls (the Mahrattahs) without its costing them a single drop of blood. The commander of the fortress was a Rãjput officer called Rãm Dãs, a friend [169] of Bahadur Khãn. He knew very well that this Rãm Dãs had not been paid by the king, and he wrote to him that if he would leave him an opening for entrance into the fort, and allow him to make himself master of it, he would present him with ten thousand rupees, also retaining him and his soldiers at good rates of pay. The commandant accepted the offer, and one morning very early allowed Bahadur Khan to pass in.