Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c40.s11.2

v3.c40.s11.2

And yet it was not a victory for Mahadji either. He had failed to crush the enemy in the field, or to rout them out of their camp. He had not captured any enemy gun. Therefore his offensive must be adjudged a failure. If he was forced to beat a hurried but marvellously well-conducted and safe retreat four days after the battle, it was due not to the threats of the enemy,, but to treachery and dissension in his own ranks and the utter failure of his provisions. Not a single Rajput general barred his retreat or appeared near enough to exchange blows with his rearguard. The Maratha despatch-writers and Mahadji himself boasted that on the field his army had been victorious. That in one sense they had been; but the impartial historian must say that, as at Sheriffmuir, so here too "none wan."