Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c27.s14.13

v2.c27.s14.13

To aggravate these difficulties, backsliding appeared among his Indo-Muslim allies except the one constant Najib; Shujā sulked in his tents repenting of having joined Abdālī; the timid Ahmad Bangash and Sadullah Ruhela of Rāmpur, alarmed by the Maratha conquest of Delhi, began to intrigue secretly with the Bhāu and his agent in the middle Doab, Govind Ballāl; some Turki troops of Abdali (Miskin says the remnant of the Sindagh mercenaries) left his camp in disappointment and offered their services to the Marathas. [Raj. i. 236, 237, 244.] But the Bhāu could not take advantage of this distress of his enemy; he had no clever and energetic lieutenant nor any efficient troops in the Doāb. The fat old revenue-collector Govind Ballāl with his rabble retainers could do nothing greater than taking petty mud-forts from the zamindars and their rustic militia. He could not even lead forays into the undefended trans-Ganges country, as the bitter experience of his attempted raid on Najibabad and disastrous flight in November 1759 (under Dattāji’s orders from Shukartal) was still fresh in his memory.