A History of the Mahrattas v2.c47.22

v2.c47.22

When Bajee Rao laid his plans for the overthrow of Nana Furnuwees, he engaged the Raja of Satara in the plot, and advised him to confine Baboo Rao Kishen, Nana’s agent, and to seize the fort; assuring him that it was his determination to re-establish the old form of government, and to serve the head of the state as faithfully as the first Bajee Rao had done. The Raja promptly complied with this request, confined Baboo Rao and seized the fort. But after Nana Furnuwees was imprisoned, when Sewram Narrain Thuthay arrived on the part of the Peishwa to receive charge, the Raja told him he would take care of the fort himself, and expressed a hope that his servant, the Peishwa, would soon fulfil his intentions. Bajee Rao, alarmed at the consequences of his own intrigues, ordered Mahdoo Rao Rastia to proceed to Satara, and endeavour to prevail on the Raja to admit his troops into the fort. A respectable force accompanied Rastia; but the Raja, having his relations about him, would neither yield to promises nor threats. These proceedings at last attracted the notice of Sindia, who, suspecting that Bajee Rao’s intrigue with the Raja was some scheme for enlarging his own power, secretly advised the Raja to maintain the fort and to raise troops, promising that he would assist him to throw off the Bramin yoke, for which purpose he solemnly engaged to send him five battalions with their guns.¹