A History of the Mahrattas v1.c27.29

v1.c27.29

Busalut Jung, the present minister, was neither of a dangerous nor a formidable character, but he was capable of being made an instrument either for a good or a bad purpose. For some reasons it would have been ill-advised to remove him, especially as he had become secretly inimical to Nizam Ally, whose audacity pointed to extreme measures from which Busalut Jung recoiled; but the designs of Hyder Jung remained incomplete whilst Nizam Ally was at liberty; he therefore determined on placing him in confinement, as well as Shah Nuwaz Khan; and at first thought of immuring him in Doulutabad; but the influence of Nizam Ally, even with the soldiery who had quitted his service, was considerable, and the proximity of Doulutabad to the province of Berar made that fortress a fitter prison for Shah Nuwaz Khan than for Nizam Ally. Whether Bussy ever would have authorized his Dewan to take the steps he meditated is certainly very questionable; if he had, it is not improbable that Hyder Jung in time would have sacrificed his French friends to his own ambition. Hyder Jung and Nizam Ally had now each their own reasons for dissimulation; the one proffered friendship, and the other affected content. Hyder Jung wished Nizam Ally to accept the government of Hyderabad, that he might be nearer Golcondah, where he intended to imprison him. Nizam Ally received the proposal with much seeming satisfaction: intercourse was re-established, and everything was made ready for departure; Hyder Jung paid him a visit prior to his setting out, and Nizam Ally, having prepared for his reception, murdered him in the tent. A great tumult ensued as soon as the event was known; the French line beat to arms. Shah Nuwaz Khan, who was confined under a guard of Europeans and Sepoys, was supposed to be the instigator of Hyder Jung’s murder, and a Hindoo Soobehdar ¹ of French Sepoys, with all of whom Hyder Jung had been extremely popular, entered the tent during the uproar, and put Shah Nuwaz Khan, together with his son and Yemen ad Dowlah, to death. Nizam Ally fled towards Burhanpoor the same night.² The tragedy was thus closed on the 11th May. The Peishwa with the Mahratta army returned to Poona, and Bussy, shortly after, not choosing to encourage Sulabut Jung in a war against Nizam Ally, bent his course towards Hyderabad. When on the march to that capital, he received from M. Lally those peremptory orders of recall, which at once deprived his nation of the great power and influence he had established. The Mahrattas, like the rest of India, were unable to comprehend such an inexplicable measure; the removal of the French garrison from Doulutabad, and the actual march of Bussy towards Pondicherry, was viewed by Ballajee Rao with wonder and with joy; but Sulabut Jung, to whom the departure of M. Bussy was equally unaccountable, saw in it the extinction of his last hope in the world, and, until soothed with assurances of the probability of his return, he continued in a state of perfect despair.