Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c41.s1.9

v3.c41.s1.9

By admirably planned tactics and exactly timed movements, this general gave Ismail Beg the slip, surprised the siege trenches before Agra, and provisioned the fort with lightning rapidity (9 April). While Rānā Khan hovered round Agra, cutting off Ismail’s provisions in spite of many reverses in open actions, Devji Golé and Rayaji Patil recovered the Mathura district and then crossed into the Doab, convulsed Ghulām Qādir’s dominions there, and stopped the coming of provisions to the besiegers of Agra. This strategy enforced a separation between Ismail and his ally Ghulām Qādir, as the latter hurried back from Agra to the Doab to defend his own estates; and then Rānā Khan, instantly seizing the isolation and weakness of Ismail Beg, inflicted a decisive defeat on him (17th June.) The country west of the Jamuna was now cleared of Sindhia's enemies, and that Chieftain himself advanced from the Gwalior side to Mathura (4th July.) But he could not recover Delhi till three months afterwards, during which interval Ghulām Qādir sacked Delhi and blinded the Emperor. Sindhia’s agents effected the unhappy sovereign’s restoration (the *khutba* being read in Shah Alam’s name again on 17th October 1788), and Ghulām Qādir was captured on 18th December and done to death in March next. There was none left now to dispute Sindhia’s supremacy.