A History of the Mahrattas v2.c36.106

v2.c36.106

When Nana Furnuwees required and obtained the sacrifice of his rival Sukaram Bappoo and of Chintoo Wittul, once the minister of Rugoba, it was no test of Sindia's fidelity to him; on the contrary, his having given them up to satisfy Nana at that time is perhaps, from the artifice of his character, rather in evidence of his having been accessory to Rugoba's flight. Sukaram Bappoo was hurried to Singurh, and thence he was removed and thrown into the fort of Pertabgurh; a circumstance which leads to the remarkable reflection—that this venerable old man, after sharing every vicissitude of privation and of grandeur, of toil and of triumph, which a leader in the camps and courts of a great empire must experience, now looked down on a scene far more awful to a mind in his situation than the tremendous abyss of four thousand feet of black rugged rock, which formed the western wall of his prison: for from Pertabgurh, on the eastern side, he saw the spot where, one hundred and twenty years before, his ancestor, Puntojee Gopinat Bhokeel, pledged to Sivajee the treacherous oath which betrayed his master Afzool Khan to the stab of the murderer. But Sukaram’s death scene was not closed in Pertabgurh; the cautious jealousy of Nana Furnuwees removed him secretly from one place to another to prevent rescue or insurrection; and the once great Sukaram Bappoo perished miserably in Raigurh. Chintoo Wittul’s life was also shortened; he died in some hill-fort from the effects of unwholesome food and harsh treatment.