Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c54.s3.6

v4.c54.s3.6

The champion of Mahādji’s Widows felt his cause hopeless, as he was without money, and heavily outnumbered. His unpaid soldiery began to desert him. The net was closed round him on the north, west and south, and the hunters were coming up very close. But he would not surrender; he fought skirmishes with Ambājī’s men in March, and at last fell back to Seondha, forty miles due east of Gwalior, in the only direction still open to him. In the fort of this place he lodged the Widows for safety, while he himself encamped under the walls of the town with 10,000 cavalry, 5,000 infantry, and 32 guns, determined to fight General Perron who arrived within 20 miles of him on 22nd April, 1801.