Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c27.s7.t4.72

v2.c27.s7.t4.72

Resistance of Bijai Singh.—During six months he defended himself gallantly in Nagor, against which the desultory Mahrattas, little accustomed to the operations of a siege, made no impression, while they suffered from the sallies of their alert antagonist. Encouraged by their inactivity, the young prince, imbued with all the native valour of his race, and impelled by that decisive energy of mind which characterized his father, determined upon a step which has immortalized his memory. He resolved to cut his way through the enemy, and solicit succours in person. He had a dromedary corps five hundred strong. Placing on these a devoted band of one thousand Rajputs, in the dead of night he passed the Mahratta lines unobserved, and made direct for Bikaner. Twenty-four hours sufficed to seat him on the same gaddi with its prince, and to reveal to him the melancholy fact, that here he had no hopes of succour. Denied by a branch of his own house, he resorted to a daring experiment upon the supporter of his antagonist. The next morning he was on his way, at the head of his dromedary escort, to the capital of the Kachhwahas, Jaipur. The "ships of the desert" soon conveyed him to that city. He halted under the walls, and sent a messenger to say that in person he had come to solicit his assistance.