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CAPTURE OF GHAWIL-GHUR.

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trated before them. This toil, it must be remembered, was undergone by Europeans, beneath the burning rays of an oriental sun; assisted by natives, who, in bodily strength and moral courage, were far inferior to their companions; both being exposed all the time to the attacks of an enemy strongly entrenched behind walls hitherto deemed impregnable.

The garrison of Ghawil-Ghur consisted of Rajpoots whose leader, Berry Sing, had escaped from Argaum. After the loss of the fort appeared inevitable, these fierce mountaineers put their wives and daughters to death, in order that they might escape the insults of the victors, and the disgrace of captivity. Some of these poor creatures were still alive, though covered with wounds and almost insensible, when our troops entered the place. War has always been esteemed a frightful scourge, even under its most favourable aspect, but its atrocity becomes redoubled to a Christian mind when productive of such unnatural murders committed by fathers and husbands upon the objects of their tenderest affection.

Two days after Ghawil-Ghur had fallen, a treaty of peace was signed by Ragojee Boonslah, Rajah of Berar. He ceded to the Company the province of Cuttack, with the fort and district of Balasore, pledging himself to dismiss the French and other European officers in his service. An amusing instance of the venal disposition of oriental statesmen occurred during the subsequent negotiations. Rajah Mohiput Ram, the vakeel of the Nizam, was extremely anxious to ascertain what particular districts would be allotted to his master from among the Berar spoils. Judging of others by himself, he offered a bribe of seven lacs of rupees to General Wellesley, if he would supply him with the requisite information. The general appeared to hesitate. "Can you keep a secret?" he demanded of the crafty Hindoo, who watched with eager eyes every expression of his

countenance. "Yes," was the ready reply. can I;" answered the general.

"And so

While these events were being enacted in the south, General Lake met with equal success in the northern provinces. Here the forces of Scindiah had been organized under the direction of a French officer, named De Boigne, who was succeeded in his command by M. Perron. The Mahratta troops numbered about 17,000 trained infantry, 22,000 cavalry, a large corps of irregulars, and a formidable park of artillery. Yet when Lake overtook this army in the Doab, on the 28th of August, they retreated at the first fire. Their want of resolution, however, may be attributed to the discontent of Perron, who, being dissatisfied with his position, was desirous of obtaining the protection of the English. Some correspondence took place on this subject between him and General Lake, which terminated in the retirement of the French officer with his family and property to Lucknow. The English immediately invested the fortress of Alighur, the garrison of which defended themselves bravely, but finally surrendered on the 4th of September. General Lake then pushed on to Delhi, and fought a battle under its walls with the organized troops of Scindiah, in which he gained a complete victory.

Upon entering the imperial city, the English commander requested that he might be allowed an interview with the Mogul. His desire being readily granted, he repaired to the palace, where he found the descendant of Timour seated beneath a tattered canopy, and exhibiting in his appearance the unmistakeable signs of infirmity and suffering. Shah Alim was now advanced in years, and blind; his countenance expressed a settled melancholy, and the depression of one doomed to perpetual captivity. He had been starved by the Mahrattas, and ill-treated by their subordinates; the French officers being the sole persons who paid him any

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GENERAL LAKE ENTERS DELHI.

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respect, or remembered the high estate from which he was fallen.

The poor old monarch received General Lake with as much satisfaction as one in his miserable and dependent state might be supposed to feel. His deliverance, or rather, change of masters, proved, at least, productive of personal comfort and security, nor, perhaps, could one who had remained so long a captive, regret the sovereignty and independent rule, which at present was only transferred from the Mahrattas to the English. Yet the latter, while they manifested no chivalrous intention of restoring to the successor of Timour the territories that, in past times, had been wrested from him, observed scrupulously those decencies of conquest which characterise civilized victors. A handsome pen

sion was allotted to the last representative of Mogul royalty, and his court re-established with some degree of outward splendour. Moreover, although the palace arrangements were not perhaps upon the same scale as those of Baber or Aurungzebe, the inhabitants who crowded the streets and bazaars of Delhi, no longer experienced the insolence and violence of the marauders of the south. In return for these advantages, the conquerors obtained privileges of no inconsiderable value. They succeeded, as it were, to the imperial jurisdiction of the house of Timour, and ruled over India under the auspices and by the authority of the Great Mogul, the only sovereign who, for a long series of years, seemed to possess any claim, either by conquest or birth, to the obedience of the entire continent.

After the fall of Delhi, Lake hastened to besiege Agra, a fortress termed by the natives "the Key of Hindoostan," On the 17th of October, the place capitulated, and upwards of 280,000l. fell into the hands of the victors. Quitting Agra, the English encountered a large Mahratta force at Laswarree, where their numbers had been of late augmented by the fugitives from those armies which

General Lake had recently encountered and dispersed. They occupied a strong post in the village of Laswarree, the English attempted to carry it, but were repulsed with loss, by a well-directed fire of artillery. Lake had advanced in the first instance with his cavalry alone; fortunately his infantry soon joined him, and the attack being renewed, the gallant 76th-"that band of heroes," as their commander termed them, charged the Mahrattas with irresistible fury, and finally succeeded in gaining a complete victory. Never, however, had any recent action been so severely contested, and on no occasion did the enemy exhibit in a more marked manner the skill and discipline which they had imbibed from their European instructors. Other advantages were gained about this time in Cuttack, Guzerat, and Bundelcund, all of which tended to render Scindiah well disposed towards peace. A treaty between him and the English was accordingly signed in General Wellesley's camp, on the 30th of December, 1803.

By this convention, Scindiah agreed to surrender the Doab, a region situated between the Ganges and the Jumna, with some other districts beyond the latter river. The ceded territory now annexed to the dominions of the British, included Delhi and Agra, the former seats of the Mogul empire. In addition to these acquisitions, the English obtained Baroach, and the coast of Guzerat, both of which had belonged to Scindiah. The Peishwa and the Nizam were gratified with their share of the spoil, and Scindiah himself recovered some unimportant places taken from him in the course of the war. governor-general endeavoured to prevail upon the new ally to receive a subsidiary force into his territories; but this mark of vassalage he steadfastly declined acceding to. He agreed, however, to disband his French allies, and never again to admit one of that nation into his service.

The

In acknowledging General Lake's despatch respecting

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IMPRESSIONS OF THE NATIVES.

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his late campaign, the governor-general remarked, "Your safety in the midst of such perils reminds me of Lord Duncan's private account of the battle of Camperdown, in which, describing his own situation in the midst of the general slaughter, he said, 'God covered my head in the day of battle." The reply of General Lake exhibits the same sense of Divine protection. “I must ever," he says, "regret the loss of so many brave men and worthy officers, and have only to look up to that Providence with adoration and thanksgiving, who, in the midst of our most perilous situations, saved so many of us to tell the tale, and offer up our prayers for His mercies vouchsafed."

It is remarkable that during the whole of 1803 the drought had been so excessive that those military operations which all parties expected would be terminated by the wet season, were carried on without the slightest interruption from the weather. Even the enemies remarked this, and affirmed that the Almighty sent the dry season to afford the English an opportunity of conquering Hindoostan. "I do most sincerely agree with them," observed General Lake, "as our successes have been beyond all parallel, and must have had the assistance of an invisible Hand. I cannot help offering my thanks to Providence whenever I reflect upon the operations of this campaign, which nothing but His guidance could have carried into effect."

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