180 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
active enemy, hoping to obtain possession at once of 
his person and of his vast wealth., which latter would 
have been a desirable acquisition in the present ex- 
hausted state of the Company’s treasury. Cheit Singh, 
however, had become so fully sensible of the uncer- 
tain issue of all warlike enterprizes, that he re- 
solved to put nothing further to the hazard, and there- 
fore quitted this fortress reputed to be impregnable, 
and whose strength he had so frequently boasted 
might defy all “ appliances and means to hoot” which 
human ingenuity could devise to reduce it; so that 
Major Popham found it deserted upon his arrival, 
except by a few half-starved soldiers, worse than 
the very worst sample that could have been selected 
from Falstaff’s ragged troop, who scarcely offered any 
resistance, and who, but for the natural, as well as 
artificial strength of the place, could not have held 
out a single hour against native valour combined with 
British discipline. 
Although the flight of the ex-Zemeendar was some- 
what precipitate, he nevertheless had the precaution 
to take with him the best part of his treasure. All 
his elephants were loaded with as much as they could 
carry, and as their burthens consisted almost entirely 
of gold and jewels, it was impossible to ascertain the 
amount which they bore away. The Bajah appeared 
to be a vast deal more solicitous about his treasures 
than about his family ; for his wife, his mother, and 
all his female relations were left behind him at the 
mercy of his enemies, who, happily for the prisoners, 
were of a more generous spirit than their natural but 
cowardly protector. When Major Popham took pos- 
