A History of the Mahrattas v1.c28.80

v1.c28.80

During the period when Sewdasheo Rao was shut up in his entrenchment, news of his situation from time to time reached the Peishwa, and in the month of November he moved to Ahmednugur, and from thence to the banks of the Godavery. In December the intelligence became still more alarming. Janojee Bhonslay joined him with a body of ten thousand men, and the army moved towards Hindoostan. In the middle of January, when crossing the Nerbuddah, a cossid (or letter carrier) belonging to the Soucars,³ who was engaged to reach Aurungabad in nine days from Panniput, met the Peishwa’s army and mentioned that the Mahrattas were defeated. He was brought to the Peishwa, who opened the letter in his charge and read its fatal contents; ‘two pearls have been dissolved, twenty-seven gold mohurs have been lost, and of the silver and copper the total cannot be cast up.’ From these words the fate of Sewdasheo Rao, Wiswas Rao, the officers, and the army was understood.