Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c42.s2.57

v3.c42.s2.57

Meantime, in the night of the 17th, as soon as the flight of Ghulām Qādir became known, most of his followers fled away from Mirat abandoning everything. Next morning Rānā Khan entered the city, released the captive princes, took charge of all the property found there on behalf of the Emperor, and arrested nāzir Manzur Ali and his Hindu satellites, as well as Maniyār Singh who had continued fighting from a house. Three thousand Ruhelas, found in the fort, were stripped of their arms and clothing and driven out with blows. Ghulām Qādir and the other prisoners were sent to Mahadji at Mathura, where they arrived on the last day of the year 1788. At first they were plied with choice food and clothing in order to induce them to reveal the hiding places of the recent spoils of Delhi. But their answer was evasive. On 28th February Mahadji received a letter from Shah Alam threatening to abdicate and go away to Mecca rather than see his tormentor spared for the sake of money. So, the Ruhela monster and his patron, the arch-traitor Manzur Ali, were done to death (2nd-4th March 1789) by tortures which were a faint echo of what they had done at Delhi. Ghulām Qādir’s eye-balls were, by command, sent to the imperial master whom he had wronged so grievously. His body also was to have been sent to Delhi for public exposure, but according to popular belief his infernal lord took it away. Khair-ud-din tells a gruesome tale of how, when his headless trunk was hung upside down from a tree, a black dog with white rings round its eyes sat below it and lapped up the blood dripping from the neck, returning to its horrid meal again and again though driven away with stones, and that after two days both corpse and dog disappeared, never to be seen again by any human eye!