page, and who lived to exact a fearful vengeance for any ill-treatment that he may have received.

At the approach of the monsoon the Emperor, dissatisfied at not receiving the whole of the share of the spoils promised him by his covetous allies, returned to the metropolis. The Mahrattas (who even during his presence in the camp had paid him but scanty respect) now threw off the last shreds of disguise, and appropriated all the profits of the campaign. They at the same time restored to Zábita Khán—whom they hoped hereafter to make into a serviceable tool-the members of his family taken at Pathargarh; receiving in exchange a ransom of a lakh and a half of rupees, which was advanced to them on Zábita's account, by the Viceroy Shujäá-ud-daulah.

The rainy season of 1772 was spent by the Emperor at Dehli; by the Mahrattas at Agra and in the neighbourhood. They would willingly have proceeded to complete the reduction of all Rohilkand, but that Mirza Najaf flatly refused to join or sanction such a course; seeing clearly that it must involve a collision with Shujäá-ud-daulah, who was supported by the British alliance, and of whose traditional policy the annexation of the province formed an essential part. The Rohillas, on their part, occupied themselves in negotiations with the Audh Viceroy, in the hope of reconstructing the Mohamadan League, which had once been so successful.

The result of which was a treaty, drawn up under the good offices of the British general, Sir R. Barker, by which the protector, Háfiz Rahmat Khán, bound himself to join Shujäá in any steps he might take for the assistance of Zábita Khán, and pay him forty lakhs of rupees, in four annual instalments upon condition of

the Mahrattas being expelled from Rohilkand. This treaty, which proved the ruin of the Rohillas, was executed on the 11th of July, 1772.*

The next step in the destruction of these brave but impolitic Pathans was the outbreak of several violent quarrels, in which brother fought against brother and father against son. Zábita Khán, meanwhile, being secretly urged by the faithless Shujäá, had made terms for himself with the Mahrattas, who engaged to procure not only his pardon but his investiture with the office of Premier Noble, formerly held by his father, Najib-ud-daulah. Their barefaced boldness in restoring Zábita Khán's family and appropriating the ransom paid to the Emperor's account for them has been already mentioned.

With the view of paving the way for the removal from power of Mirza Najaf, they next addressed themselves to creating disturbances in the country around Dehli. For they knew that this would at once alarm the Emperor and involve the Mirza in difficulty and danger; and they foresaw in the result of such intrigues an easy method of ruining one whom they justly regarded as an obstacle to the recall to office of their protégé Zábita. They accordingly instigated Ranjit Singh, the ruler of the Bhartpur Játs, to prefer a claim to the fief of Balamgarh, held by a petty chieftain of his own nation. This chief solicited aid.

* It is curious that Professor H. H. Wilson, the continuer, and ordinarily the corrector of Mill, should cite a Persian life of Rahmat Khan to show that this arrangement has been misunderstood, that its real purport was that the forty lakhs were to be given to the Mahrattas to buy them off, but that Shujäá was only the surety. If the Viceroy's character and subsequent conduct did not refute this, yet the text of the treaty would do so.-Vide Note at end of Chapter.

from the Emperor against his powerful rival; and in the end of the year 1772 Mirza Najaf Khán, who henceforth figures in the native histories by his newlyacquired title of Zulfikár-ud-daulah, sent a force under a Biloch leader to the aid of the Balamgarh man. The Mahrattas, on the other hand, sent a force from Agra, which joining with the Bhartpur Játs, forced the Imperialists to retreat towards the capital; but the Patel, disapproving of the Rohilla element contributed to this confederacy by the presence of Zábita Khán, retired towards Jaipur, where he occupied himself in plundering the Rájputs. Takuji Holkar and the other Mahratta chiefs, feeling strong enough to dispense with his aid, and anxious, for reasons of their own, to fulfil their promise to Zábita, advanced towards Dehli, but were met at a place called Baddarpur, ten miles south of the city, by a force under the minister himself. In the action which ensued, the Moghul force which, thongh well disciplined and well led by Mirza Najaf, seconded by M. Médoc and some efficient native officers, was numerically weak, fell back upon Humayun's tomb, within four miles of the palace of New Dehli. Here ensued a series of skirmishes, which lasted four days; till the Mirza having had a nephew slain, retreated to the new town by way of Daryaoganj, followed by a strong detachment of the enemy. He still obstinately defended the palace and its environs; but Hissám-ud-daulah (whose backstair influence has been already mentioned) went in person to the Mahratta camp the following day, and informed them, as from his master, that the brave minister would be sacrificed by his weak and ungrateful master. Holkar and his train of black and unkempt pygmies swarmed insolently into the palace, where they dictated

their own terms. The Mahrattas, who were anxious to return to the Deccan, were not disposed to make difficulties; their main terms were-the restoration to the office of premier noble of. Zábita Khán, and the cession of those provinces in the Lower Doáb which had been under the direct sway of the Emperor, while he enjoyed British protection.* These terms being granted, they picked a quarrel with Mirza Najaf Khán, about a payment which he was alleged to have guaranteed them during the Sukhartál campaign, and obtained an order from the Emperor banishing him the court. These events occurred at the end of December, just a twelvemonth after the unfortunate monarch's restoration.

1773.-Finding Zábita Khán in office, and the pandar Hisám in high favour, the heroic ex-minister, having still with him a strong and faithful escort of Moghul horse, together with the remains of the trained infantry, and having sent to Saharanpur for his adopted son, Afrasyáb Khán, who had some squadrons with him for the protection of that district, threw himself into a fortified house outside the Kábul Gate of the city. The forces of the new Minister surrounded him, while the Mahrattas looked on with curiosity, which seems to have been tempered by admiration for his heroism; and the next day he formed one of those desperate resolutions which have so often been known to influence the course of Asiatic politics. Putting on all his armour,t and wearing over it a sort of shroud of green, in the fashion used

* Vide sup. p. 75.

The armour of a Moghul noble consisted of a skull-cap and panoply of chain-mail, so exquisitely wrought of pure steel rings that the whole scarcely weighed ten pounds; over this he wore a morion, and four plates of steel, called Char ayna.

for the grave-clothes of a descendant of the Prophet, Najaf Khán rode out at the head of his personal guards. As the small band approached the Mahratta camp, shouting their religious war-cries of "Allah Ho Akbar," and "Ya Hossain," they were met by a peaceful deputation of the unbelievers who courteously saluted them, and conducted them to camp in friendly guise.

It can only be supposed that the news of the Peshwa's death, which had recently arrived from Punah, and the unsettled state of the Rohilla quarrel, combined to render the Mahrattas indisposed to push matters to extremity against a man of Najaf Khán's character and influence, and thus gave rise to this extraordinary scene. The result was that the exminister's excitement was calmed, and he agreed to join the Mahrattas in an attack on Rohilkand. One cannot but remark the tortuous policy of these restless rievers. First they move the Emperor upon the Rohillas; then they move the Rohilla, Zábita Khán, upon the Emperor; and then, having united these enemies, they make use of a fresh instrument to renew the original attack. With this new ally they marched upon Rohilkand by way of Rámghát, below Anupshahar, where the Ganges is fordable during the winter months; and at the same time parties of their troops devastated the Doáb.

Meanwhile the British, finding that the Emperor was unable to protect the provinces about Allahabad, which they had put into his charge, made them over to the Viceroy of Audh, to whose management they had been attached previous to the negotiations that followed the battle of Buxar, and between whose dominions and those of the British they formed the connecting link. They had been abandoned by the