Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c56.s16: § 4. Disruption of Sindhia’s army in Delhi; Louis Bourquien’s revolt
Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c56.s16
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§ 4. Disruption of Sindhia’s army in Delhi; Louis Bourquien’s revolt
v4.c56.s16.1
Two tasks had been set before General Lake when he entered on this war. The first was achieved within a week of his crossing the frontier when he destroyed Perron’s military power by taking Aligarh. This success was promptly followed up by turning to his second object, the possession of Delhi and the Mughal Emperor. Starting from Aligarh on 7th September, he received that very day a letter from Perron, begging for an asylum in British territory as he had resigned Sindhia’s service. The prayer was at once granted, and Lake, thus relieved in mind about the head of the French party, pushed on towards the Mughal capital, reaching Sikandrabad, 50 miles from Aligarh on the 9th.
v4.c56.s16.2
Here he received the most encouraging news; there was a civil war among Perron’s officers in Delhi and a mutiny of their sepoys against their selfish and treacherous French commanders. Perron’s original plan was to concentrate his troops at Mathurā, bring the Emperor to that camp and make him sign and seal letters agreeing to take from the Government of France a subsidiary force which would be paid for by the cession of the Doab to France in full sovereignty, exactly on the model of the subsidiary treaties by which the English had created their empire in Bengal, Oudh, and the Deccan. This would give legal validity to Perron’s position under international law. Perron sent tents, elephants, horses, escort and money to Delhi for the Emperor’s journey to Mathurā, and wrote to Louis Bourquien, the commander of his brigade in the Delhi district, to induce the Emperor to start on his march at 1 P.M. on 4th September. But Bourquien now repudiated Perron’s authority and set himself up as an independent agent of Sindhia. In the night before the appointed day, he threw down the tents erected for the Emperor, looted all the property in that camp, and next morning struck the Emperor’s flag, unfurled Sindhia’s, and proclaimed himself commander-in-chief, under a salute of 21 guns. Then he plundered the city of Delhi and the public treasury in it. His one aim was to pile up as much money as he could in a short time, and carry it home by going over to the English.
v4.c56.s16.3
Major Geslin, whom Perron had detached with the second brigade to reinforce Bourquien and escort the Emperor to Mathurā, on ariving at Delhi on 3rd September, was thrown into confinement by the new commander-in-chief. Next day, when Perron’s vakil (foreign secretary and envoy) Harsukh Rāi waited on Bourquien to convey his master’s message, he was dismissed with the curt reply, “Your master is nobody now. I am all in all here.” Meantime two couriers of the English had reached Delhi with the Governor-General’s letters addressed to the adjutant of each battalion there, tempting them to desert to the English with their men.
v4.c56.s16.4
Bourquien called upon Drugeon, the qiladār to deliver to him the palace and the treasure in it. The honest Savoyard refused, and then Bourquien planting a battery of six guns began to bombard the Red Fort (9th Sept.). The Emperor, in fear of this second Ghulām Qādir at his gate, sent off a messenger to Lake informing him of the disorder among the troops in Delhi and begging him to come to his rescue.
v4.c56.s16.5
Sindhia’s troops in Delhi were in a state of indescribable ferment. At last they rose against their deceitful foreign captains and compelled them to march out for fighting the English instead of surrendering like cowards, or effecting their own escape from Delhi.
v4.c56.s16.6
Perron heard this story from the faithful Major Geslin who had been sent to Delhi: “Bourquien found that he could save his private fortune and escape only by surrendering to the English, a thing which was well nigh impossible without sacrificing his army to his cupidity. So, now, in order to be able to flee without danger, he led the army to believe that he wanted to fight the English,...and made his troops cross the river on the 11th of September and attack the English. But from the commencement of the action, he and the officers who had sided with him in his revolt, took to flight and ultimately gave themselves up as prisoners to the English. Their army, being betrayed and abandoned by its chief and his officers, was easily defeated.” [Martineau, 173.]*