Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c34.s1.2

v3.c34.s1.2

But the Emperor was in no position then to fulfil these expectations. Indeed, he did not as yet know how to subsist himself. His treasury was empty, his Crownlands were gone out of his possession, his palaces were stripped of their furniture, all the royal stores exhausted long ago, the public buildings were out of repair and even the fort walls were cracked. To add to his burdens, he had run into heavy debt and let the pay of his troops fall into arrears by maintaining a large force during the past ten months for escorting him to Delhi; and over everything else hung the dark cloud of the large subsidy promised to the Marathas for their recent military aid and still unpaid. The task before Shah Alam II in January 1772 was nothing less than the reconquest of a dismembered empire with an empty treasury and in the teeth of powerful usurpers who were entrenched in their provinces by long years of possession and formidable for their veteran armies, well filled treasuries and the prestige of past victories.