Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c27.s25.8

v2.c27.s25.8

As for Sadāshiv Rāo Bhāu, the survivors of that fatal day made him the scapegoat of the Maratha debacle. They ascribed the loss of their northern empire and army solely to his overweening conceit, contempt for the advice of wiser men, and that intellectual blindness with which the gods first afflict those whom they wish to destroy. Later generations of Maratha writers have echoed this cry, but with what little justice the authentic documents cited in the foregoing narrative of his campaign will have shown. But his conduct on the last day no student of the military science can justify. When a soldier makes the supreme sacrifice, there may be sorrow for it, but not regret. The fruit of his action is immaterial to him. The young hero—only two years older than the Bhāu,—who fell into the arms of victory on the Heights of Abraham, was fond of singing,