A History of the Mahrattas v2.c41.23

v2.c41.23

the cavalry, the issue of the day might have been very different ; but, after a heavy loss, the regular troops at last gave way, and the whole, favoured by the night, effected their retreat to Bhurt-poor. Ismael Beg and Gholam Kawdir called upon Runjeet Sing, the Jhat chief, to renounce his connexion with the Mahrattas, otherwise they would, after the reduction of Agra, besiege him in his capital. But their triumph was of short duration ; Luckwa Dada, the Killidar of the fort of Agra, persevered in his gallant and successful defence ; the Mahomedan chiefs soon evinced a distrust of each other, and Rannay Khan, hearing of an incursion of the Seiks, sent a body of Mahrattas and Jhats to join and encourage them to fall on the Jagheer of Gholam Kawdir. This diversion had the desired effect : Gholam Kawdir immediately set off to repel the invaders, and Sindia, having reinforced the division of Rannay Khan, the Mahrattas and Jhats once more advanced towards Agra, at which place an obstinate battle was fought, in which De Boigne and his battalions greatly signalized themselves. The army of Ismael Beg was defeated and dispersed ; that chief himself, after receiving two severe wounds, escaped from the field by the swiftness of his horse, plunged into the Jumna, gained the opposite bank, and with a few followers reached the camp of Gholam Kawdir, by whom he was courteously received. His dispersed army flocked to Delhi, whither, in hopes of again collecting them, he immediately repaired. Gholam Kawdir followed him to the capital. The Emperor refused to admit either the one or the other into the citadel ; but Gholam Kawdir, having corrupted one of the confidential servants, not only gained admittance, but seized the gates, occupied every part of the palace and citadel with his own troops, and commenced a systematic train of violence, rapine, and barbarity, almost without example in the annals of the world. These enormities continued for two months ; at the end of that time, when the unhappy monarch had been plundered, insulted, and dethroned, his eyes destroyed in their sockets, by the point of a dagger in the hand of the merciless Gholam Kawdir ; when his wives, daughters, sons, and relatives had been exposed, dishonoured, degraded, and some of them starved to death, the Mahratta army at last marched to his relief. Ismael Beg, who at first had so far concurred in the views of Gholam Kawdir as to agree to plunder the imperial palace, for the purpose of procuring the means of