1G2 MAHRATTA WAR. 



After the capture of Alighar, Lake marched directly upon 

 Delhi, the imperial capital, and the residence of him who 

 still enjoyed the rank and title of Great Mogul. He had 

 advanced within view of its walls, when he discovered the 

 army organized under French command drawn up in a 

 strong position to defend its approaches. Though he had 

 only 4500 men against 19,000, yet he determined to give 

 battle without delay ; but as the enemy could not without 

 difficulty and severe loss have been dislodged from their 

 present ground, he used a feigned retreat as a stratagem to 

 draw them from it. This delicate manoeuvre was executed 

 by the British troops with perfect order and skill ; the ene- 

 my, imagining the flight real, quitted their inirenchments, 

 and eagerly pursued ; but as soon as they had been fully 

 drawn forth on the plain, General Lake faced about. A 

 single charge drove them from the field with the loss of 

 three thousand in killed and wounded, and their whole train 

 of artillery. 



The British general now entered Delhi without resist- 

 ance. He immediately requested and obtained an audience 

 of the sovereign, with whom a secret communication had 

 previously been opened. He beheld this unfortunate de- 

 scendant of a long line of illustrious princes "seated under 

 a small tattered canopy, the remnant of his former state, 

 his person emaciated by indigence and infirmities, and 

 his countenance disfigured with the loss of his eyes, and 

 marked with extreme old age and a settled melancholy." 

 He is described as deeply sensible to the kindness of Lake, 

 on whom he bestowed several titles, such as "the sword 

 of the state, the hero of the land, the lord of the age, and 

 the victorious in war." All his adherents, and the people 

 of Delhi in general, expressed delight on this occasion, and 

 the journalists, in the language of oriental hyperbole, pro- 

 claimed that the emperor, through excess of joy, had re- 

 covered his sight. Mr. Mill derides those rather pompous 

 descriptions of the "delivering" of Shah Allum, as he was 

 in fact merely transferred as a state-prisoner, from one cus- 

 tody to another ; yet, besides having suffered the most 

 barbarous treatment from some of the native chiefs, he had 

 endured from all of them very great neglect. The French 

 officers seem to have been inclined to treat him with re- 

 spect ; but the funds obtained from Sindia for his support 



