Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c51.s7.22

v4.c51.s7.22

Throughout the year 1789, Mahādji was heavily involved in financial difficulties. He was over head and ears in debt, and owed 34 months' salary to his Deccani troops. When, therefore, De Boigne asked for funds to expand his three battalions into a brigade, Mahādji refused, and the Savoyard General, unable to maintain his corps on mere credit, gave up Sindhia's service and retired to Lucknow, where he engaged in a profitable trade along with his friend Claud Martin. From March to August Mahādji's affairs were in confusion owing to his long illness followed by his quarrel with Ali Bahādur and Tukoji Holkar. But in the early winter of that year, he was fully recovered, and a rupture with Mirzā Ismail Beg and in consequence of it a renewal of war with the Mirzā's pay-masters, the Rajahs of Jaipur and Marwar, loomed nearer and nearer. So, Mahādji sent an agent to De Boigne begging him to return to his service and raise a full brigade on his own terms. De Boigne agreed, and promptly reached Mahādji's camp, (October 1789.) He set himself to enlisting men and officers, providing their arms and uniforms, and establishing an arsenal and cannon-foundry of his own. The three old battalions—two of his own and the third mainly made up of