Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c54.s3.8

v4.c54.s3.8

At Seondha* was fought the last battle of the ablest and noblest of Mahādji’s generals now surviving. It was a hopeless contest, but Lakhwā stood his ground manfully against odds which would have disheartened any other man. On 3rd May 1801, Perron attacked and after a sharp and murderous conflict, carried a redoubt of the rebels, capturing five guns there. He immediately followed up this victory by storming a second redoubt. The Datiā Rajah was mortally wounded; Lakhwā himself was wounded in the hand by grape shot and the wound festered till his death nine months later. The Grāsia allies deserted the lost cause, and the Bāis, with the invalid Lakhwā Dādā and their surviving sardārs, fled away by the Chandāveli pass to Datiā (arriving there on 9th May). That capital could not long harbour them. Their unpaid soldiery went away in search of bread.