Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c42.10

v3.c42.10

But the drunken Afghan youth could not yet have all things in his own way at Delhi. The widow of Walter Reinhard, popularly called Begam Sarmu, was present at the capital with her compact French-led army of four battalions of disciplined sepoys and 85 guns, to guard the throne. She refused to take her orders from the new Regent, and then there was a rupture between the two. The lord of Ghausgarh could expand his possessions towards Delhi only at the expense of the principality of Sardhāna in the same region which Begam Samru was building up. The remainder of September passed in their wrangles and parleys. The Emperor's policy was to use the Begam as a shield against the Ruhela dictator; he honoured her and her stepson Zafar-yāb Khan, and with her help and that of the Sikh sardar Bhangā Singh, manned the walls and trenches of Delhi to resist Ghulām Qādir, who crossed back into the Doab (12th September) in order to avoid a clash with Begum Samru, on the west bank.