Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c27.s3.16

v2.c27.s3.16

Meantime Dattāji Sindhia had been dreaming the vain dream that when the Emperor and the wazir would arrive in his camp and strengthen his legal position with their prestige, he would detach a large force under that constant failure Govind Ballāl to Farrukhabad, with orders to absorb the feeble levies of the lame invalid Ahmad Bangash, throw a bridge over the Ganges at Farrukhabad, and sack and burn the Ruhela country east of that river. This was the very strategy that had failed at the end of October. But rumours about Shujā having decided to make a counter-attack by crossing the bridge below Shukartal and joining Najib, kept Dattāji in alarm and suspense and detained Govind Ballāl in his camp for some days. While the two sides were higgling for the amount of the war-indemnity, events moved apace. The murder of the Emperor hastened the advance of the justly incensed Abdali upon Delhi for punishing the traitors and rebels. In the past two months the Afghan hold upon the Panjab had been fully established, the Sikhs brought under control,—at least along the main route,—and the conqueror was free to cross the Satlaj in person. On 23rd November, five hundred troopers, stripped of all their clothing above the waist and all their baggage,—the sole remnant of the six thousand Maratha soldiers posted in Multan,—straggled into Dattāji’s camp, proving beyond any doubt that “a great disaster has befallen us.”*