Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c56.s16.2

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.