A History of the Mahrattas v1.c22.66

v1.c22.66

The Nizam made an attempt to move, but owing to the encumbrance of heavy baggage and stores, he was compelled to return; his troops, in retiring to their former ground, were driven under the walls, or crowded within the fortifications of Bhopaul. Bajee Rao, from the want of artillery, could not effect a breach, but he poured in such a shower of rockets, and so galled the Moghuls with matchlocks, that Nizam Ool Moolk determined on making a last effort to extricate himself. He deposited his baggage in Bhopaul and Islamgurh, and began his retreat under cover of a powerful artillery and a number of swivels mounted on camels. The Mahrattas charged the guns, but failed in taking them. The retreat, however, was only at the rate of three miles a day. The Mahrattas acted vigorously, but began to be discouraged by the execution from the guns¹; at last, the Nizam, on the twenty-fourth day from the commencement of the attack, about the 11th February, was compelled to sign a convention at Dooraee Suraee, near Seronje, promising in his own handwriting to grant to Bajee Rao the whole of Malwa and the complete sovereignty of the territory between the Nerbuddah and the Chumbul; to obtain a confirmation of it from the Emperor, and to use every endeavour to procure the payment of a subsidy of fifty lacks of rupees to defray the Peishwa’s expenses.² ‘I tried hard,’ says Bajee Rao, ‘to get something from the Nabob himself, but this I scarcely expected, I recollected his unwillingness to part with money when I entered on an agreement to assist him’; alluding to their compact six years before.