faithful to him. The armies being in presence of each other, different partial actions took place. In one of these, the vizir was killed by a cannon shot. The news of this event being carried to the emperor, he was so deeply affected by it, that he died the next day in a convulsive agony of grief. The Shah-Zadda, or hereditary prince, on receiving intelligence of the demise of his father, gave the command of the army to the son of the late vizir, and hastened to the capital, where he was proclaimed emperor.

We do not mean to follow the Afghan monarch in the course of his expeditions, either on the western or eastern side of the Indus. Returning from one of the latter to his own dominions, he left a body of troops in Sirhind, under one of his generals, named Jehan Khan; and another under his son Taimur in Lahore, with orders to take vengeance on the Sikhs, for having borne arms against him. The first enterprise of Taimur was on Amritsar, which he destroyed; an outrage, that so exasperated

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the Sikhs, that all who were capable of bearing arms, assembled in order to avenge it. Taimur made several attacks upon them, in which he was constantly repulsed by a leader of much celebrity, named Jasa Sinh Calal, who even got possession of the town and fortress of Lahore. Adina Beg, who still bore the title of governor of the province for the emperor, invited to his assistance an army of Mahrattas, which had already advanced towards the north under } the command of three chiefs, Raghunat Rao Sahib Pateil, and Malhar Rao: but these chiefs, instead of aiding him, entered and subdued Sirhind, expelling from thence the Afghan general Jehan Khan. They next advanced into Lahore, which they likewise reduced. From hence a detachment from their army was sent into Moultan, whilst Sahib Pateil advanced with another corps and took position on the banks of the Attock in order to observe the Afghans who were in force on the western side of the river. But the commotions that broke out in Hindustan and in the

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Deckan, obliged the Mahratta armies to quit Lahore and return towards the south. Adina Beg died in the ensuing year, 1760, and the Sikhs profited by the present state of things to re-establish their authority in the province. In the same year another Mahratta army again advanced toward the north, with the avowed intention of making the conquest of that part of Hindustan. The nominal commander of this army was a youth of seventeen years, eldest son of Bala Row the Peishwa, or efficient chief of the Mahratta state; the real commander was Sedasheo Row Bow, who had for some years occupied the place of first minister to the Peishwa; but, though an able statesman, he seems to have been destitute of the qualities of a general. Contrary to what had been in former times the mode of warfare of the Mahrattas, his army was encumbered with artillery and baggage.* After remaining for some time at Agra and the countries contiguous to it, the Bow, as

* See Appendix, Note C.

he is generally called, marched to Dehly, of which city he took possession. The periodical rains having set in soon after his arrival there, he put his army into cantouments. The Afghan monarch had for some time past been too much occupied in his own dominions, to take any active part in the transactions in India; but being warmly pressed by some Mohammedan chiefs to come to their assistance against the Mahrattas, he again crossed the Attock. Those chiefs having joined him with their forces, and consented to be guided by him, he marched against the Mahratta leaders, who instead of advancing to meet him, established themselves in a strong position at Panniputh, in the province of Dehly, and about forty-five miles north of that city. The Mahrattas counted above 200,000 men under arms, even after the desertion of the Jats, who secretly quitted them. The Mohammedan army amounted to about 150,000. The Mahrattas had covered the most accessible parts of their camp with batteries and entrenchments. The armies

remained in presence of each other near three months, during which several partial actions were fought with various fortune. The activity of Ahmed to prevent supplies from getting into the enemy's camp, had at last reduced the Mahrattas to be in want of subsistence. The Bow, their real commander, having in this extremity resolved to give battle, early on the morning of the 7th of January, 1761, quitted his camp and marched towards the Mohammedans. At day-light the Mahrattas were seen advancing with their numerous artillery distributed in their lines. Ahmed was soon in readiness to receive them. The battle, one of the most bloody and obstinate that almost ever imbrued even the plains of Hindustan, was completely engaged shortly after sunrise, and continued with unremitting fury till between three and four o'clock in the afternoon, when the Mahrattas began to give way, and soon after fled, leaving dead upon the field, Biswas Row, a youth of most promising qualities, Sedashéo Row Bow, with many other generals, and at