in the centre of which he fixed his capital at Sardhana, long destined to remain in the possession of his family, and where a country house and park, familiar to the English residents at Meerut, still belong to the widow of his last descendant. This territory, nominally assigned for the maintenance of the troops under the adventurer's command, was valued in those days at six lakhs of rupees annually; so that the blood-stained miscreant, whose saturnine manners had given him a bad name,* even among the rough Europeans of the Company's battalion, found his career of crime rewarded by an income corresponding to that of many such petty sovereigns as those of his native country.

1778.-The beginning of this year was marked by a bloodless campaign, to which Majad-ud-daulah led the Emperor. The Rajputs were the object of the attack, and they were rigorously mulcted. The Mirza's personal share in this matter was confined to that of a peacemaker. He probably disapproved of the campaign, which had been undertaken in a spirit of rivalry to himself; and by obtaining terms for the Rajputs he made new ties while displaying his own power. He accompanied the return of the expedition to Dehli, where his daughter was married to Najaf Kuli in the presence of the Emperor.

Mirza Najaf Khán then departed once more to Agra, the seat of his administration and his favourite abode. But his repose was not of long continuance, and he was soon called upon for fresh exertions; the Sikhs having risen against Maulah Ahmad Dád, the Faujdár

* His comrades called him "Sombre," a sobriquet which, after adhering to him through life, became the family name of his descendants. Colonel Skinner is my authority for the tenure of his estates.

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of Sirhind, whom they defeated and slew. receipt of this intelligence the Emperor had deputed On the Abdul Ahid Khán-known to us by his title of Nawab Majad-ud-daulah—with an army nominally under the command of one of the Imperial Princes, to inflict signal chastisement upon obstinate offenders. If the surmise of the native historians be correct-that Abdul Ahid Khán had been privy to the late combination between the Sikhs and Zábita Khán against Mirza Najaf-the fact of his being sent against them, without any objection from so wise and loyal a minister as the Mirza, can only be accounted for by citing it as a proof of the peculiar danger to which great men are exposed, under an Eastern despotism, of reposing their confidence in secret enemies. That Abdul Ahid was even then plotting against his patron will be seen to be likely from his subsequent conduct, and certainly derives no confutation from the circumstance of his being a native of Kashmir, a country the faithlessness of whose inhabitants is proverbial, even in Indian story.

The Prince, whose standard was the rallying point of the army, is variously named as Jawan Bakht, Farkhanda Bakht, and Akbar; the former being the name of the Prince whom we saw acting as Regent during the Emperor's residence under English protection at Allahabad, the later that of the future successor to the titular Empire. Whoever it may have been, the outset of the expedition promised him success, if not distinction. The Imperial host, 20,000 strong and with an efficient park of artillery, came in contact with the enemy at Karnál; but Majad-ud-daulah preferred negotiation to fighting, and induced the Sikhs to pay down a sum of three lakhs, and pledge themselves to the payment of an annual tribute, Joining the Sikh

forces to his own, the Majad-ud-daulah next proceeded northwards, but was brought to a check at Pattiála by Amar Singh, the Ját chief of that state. Here fresh negotiations ensued, in which the perfidious Kashmirian is said to have offered to allay himself with the Sikhs for the destruction of Mirza Najaf Khán, on condition of being supported by them in his endeavours to be made Prime Minister in the room of that statesman. Whether the Ját leader had profited by the lesson lately read to his brethren of Bhartpur, or whether he was merely actuated by a desire to try conclusions with the Kashmirian, having penetrated the cowardice of his character, is matter for conjecture. Whatever the intrigue may have been, it was soon frustrated. A large Sikh reinforcement profited by the time gained in the negotiation to advance from Lahor; the Karnál force deserted the Imperial camp, and a general onset was made upon it the following morning. Led by a half-hearted commander and an inexperienced Prince, the Imperialists offered but a faint resistance; but their retreat was covered by the artillery, and they contrived to escape without suffering much in the pursuit, and indeed without being very closely followed up. It is interesting to observe, among the names of the Sikh Sirdars, who played this game of "diamond cut diamond" with the Kashmirian, that of Ranjit Singh, afterwards the wily Egbert of the Panjáb Heptarchy, and the firm friend of Britain for nearly forty years.

This disastrous campaign occurred in the cold weather of 1778-79, and the victorious Panjábis poured into the Upper Doáb, which they forthwith began to plunder.

1779.-Meanwhile, Mirza Najaf Khán remained in contemptuous repose at Agra, only interrupted by a

short and successful dash at some Rájput malcontents, who had been stirred up, it is thought, at the instigation of his rival Majad-ud-daulah. That inefficient but unscrupulous intriguer is also shown by Captain Grant Duff to have been at the same time engaged in a correspondence with Mádhoji Sindhia, in view to joining, when once he should have gained possession of the power of the Empire, in an attack on the British Provinces. Duff gives this story on the authority of Sindhia's own letters, which that chief's grandson had placed in his hands; but he does not say whether the fickle Emperor was or was not a party to this iniquitous conspiracy for the ruin of his faithful servant and his long-established friends.

Certain it is that Sindhia was at that time very far from the statesmanlike views and reasonable aims which he ultimately adopted. Towards the close of the year, indeed, he took the ill-judged step of joining with Haidar Ali and the Nizám with the object of expelling the British from every part of the Indian Continent. But Mr. Hastings soon disturbed the plans of the confederates and ere long rendered them hopeless. Some were conquered by force of arms, others were conciliated; and Sindhia in particular, received a lesson which made upon his sagacious mind a permanent impression.

1780.-There was, in the country now known as Dholpur, between Agra and Gwalior, a local Ját landholder who had in the decay of the Empire followed the example of Suraj Mal (of Bhurtpore) and assumed independence. In 1771, when Shah Alam was returning to the throne of his ancestors, Chatr Singh, the then Zemindar, advanced money to the Treasury, and was soon after created a peer by the title of Maháráj

Rána. Henceforth he figures in history as the "Rána of Gohad." Having a hereditary feud against the Mahrattas and a hereditary claim, such as it was, to the fortress of Gwalior, then in Sindhia's hands, he seemed to Hastings a useful instrument for causing a diversion. Major Popham, one of the best of the local officers, was accordingly sent to assist the Rána and stir up a confederation of Ját and Rájput powers to aid against the Musalman-Mahratta alliance by which British interests were threatened. The situation of the fort of Gwalior on a scarped and isolated rock over 200 feet high, need not here be more than mentioned; the manner of its capture, however, cannot be too often referred to as an instance of what resolution and conduct can effect in Asiatic warfare. Having prepared scaling ladders in such secrecy that even his European officers were ignorant of what was being done or planned, Popham sent a storming party of sepoys, backed by twenty Europeans, to a place at the foot of the rock pointed out to him by some thieves. It was the night of the 3rd August, 1780, and the party, under the command of Captain Bruce, were shod with cotton to render their approach inaudible. The enemies' rounds were passing as they came near the spot; so the assaulting column lay down and waited until the lights and voices had ceased; then the ladders were placed against the cliff, and one of the robber guides mounting returned with intelligence that the guard had gone to sleep. The next moment the first ladder was mounted by Lieutenant Cameron, the engineer officer, and the others followed in silence, Captain Bruce having reached the rampart with twenty

The capture by two young Bombay subalterns in June, 1858, may also be remembered. (Malleson, 227.)