Читать книгу The Autobiography of the Duke of Wellington - Joseph Moyle Sherer - Страница 8

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The tranquillity of the new conquests, and the quiet submission of the country, was for a while delayed by the enterprise of an adventurer, named Dhoondia Waugh.

This individual, born in the kingdom of Mysore, of Mahratta parents, had been a private horseman in the cavalry of Hyder, and served afterwards in the army of his son with some petty command. Being a restless, ambitious man, and disappointed of promotion to the extent of his hopes, he deserted the sultan’s service, during the war with lord Cornwallis, and, putting himself at the head of a few predatory horse, he plundered the country north of the Toombudra. His maraud, however, was checked and chastised by the court of Poonah, whose troops, under their chief Ghokla, overtook and defeated him. Induced by a fair offer of Tippoo, who promised both forgiveness and employment, he returned to Mysore, at the head of two hundred followers. The treacherous sultan immediately threw him into prison, and invited him to turn mussulman. Whether this was to secure his allegiance, or to increase the number of the faithful, may not be confidently said; but the tyrant circumcised his Hindoo prisoner by force, and subjected him to very cruel and rigorous treatment throughout a long confinement At the capture of Seringapatam, amongst the prisoners hastily set at liberty, without due examination and inquiry, was Dhoondia Waugh. No sooner were his fetters knocked off than his feet were again in the stirrups. Many of Tippoo’s horsemen, men of desperate fortunes, without a country, a service, or a master, became his willing followers. With these people he ravaged the rich country of Biddenóre; and it became necessary to send after him two strong detachments of the army, under colonels Stevenson and Dalrymple. Six hundred and fifty of his followers, horse and foot, were cut up by lieutenant-colonel Dalrymple; by whom, and by colonel Stevenson, he was soon driven across the Toombudra, into the territory of the peishwah. Here his old conqueror Ghokla came upon him, and being stripped of guns, tents, and baggage, elephants and bullocks, he fled north, with the very few horse which, after this last dispersion, remained to him, and for a time totally disappeared.

Nothing is more remarkable in India than the magic growth of a predatory force. A single adventurer, with no purse, no possession, but horse and sword, if he has once rode at the head of a body of freebooters, and got a name for activity and fortune, is sure to be sought out and followed by all whose feet are “swift to shed blood, and to divide the spoil.” The specks scarce visible or noticed in the far distance, approaches; and, behold, a heavy cloud black with the menace of destruction. Thus, in 1800, Dhoondia rode south again with 5000 horse, and threatened the frontier of Mysore. Against this enemy a force was immediately ordered to take the field, and colonel Wellesley was appointed to the command. The colonel crossed the Toombudra with his troops on the 24th of June; another body under colonel Bowser marched upon the same service, to cooperate with and under him. On the 29th, from intelligence he received, colonel Wellesley found that if he halted for colonel Bowser he might lose the chance of striking such a blow at Dhoondia as would cripple him. He therefore pressed forward with his cavalry only. At Malowny on the Malpoorba he found a detached camp of this chieftain; rode into it; cut up or drove into the river all the combatants he found there; took animals, baggage, &c., and closed the affair by making a party of his European dragoons swim across the river and seize a boat By this means he contrived the same evening to possess himself of their guns, which had been safely transported to the opposite bank before his arrival. After various forced and fatiguing marches, and many able movements conducted with persevering activity and judgment, colonel Wellesley found himself within a few miles of Dhoondia’s main force on the night of the 9th of September. Bad weather and jaded horses compelled him to a short halt. Luckily, the chief, misled by the previous manœuvres of Wellesley, and misinformed by his spies, was ignorant of the near approach of the British troops. After a night of anxious impatience, colonel Wellesley bade sound “To horse !” rode forward with his eager squadrons, and soon came in presence of “the king of the two worlds.” His army, consisting of at least 5000 cavalry, for he had been strengthened since his arrival in the south, was drawn up in a very strong position near the village of Conagull His people put on a good bold countenance, and looked firm. The colonel most rapidly formed the British dragoons and native cavalry; and in one resolute charge, led by himself, the fate of this lawless horde was decided. They were cut up or dispersed, every thing in their camp taken, and Dhoondia himself, “king of the two worlds,” was slain. His body was recognized among the dead: it was immediately lashed upon one of the galloper guns attached to the 19th light dragoons, and brought by the soldiers, with no small exultation, to the English camp. It is impossible to read the letters to Sir Thomas (then major) Munro, lately published in the correspondence of that able and esteemed man, in which colonel Wellesley describes these operations, without the liveliest interest The pursuit and overthrow of this formidable freebooter are related with a flow of joyous good-humor like the story of a successful hunt; and the phrases, the “king of the world” and “his majesty” are repeated with a playfulness, which shows the extreme pleasure Wellesley felt at his success, and the utter insignificance in which he held the peril or the glory of such a combat At the same time it will be seen how much of thought and foresight; what clear arrangements for supply; what prompt decision on routes; what skill in movement; what unwearied perseverance, were exhibited in the effectual performance of this service. With colonel Wellesley duty was never a trifle. It mattered not how small or great the object to be attained. He gave to all orders that he received his fixed intelligent attention; and to the execution of them, for the time being, all his mind.

Let the youthful officer consider well this feature in the character we place before him. He will find it distinctive of the whole career of Wellesley.

The service just performed was of considerable importance, and checked in time the growth of a vast horde of pindarries, and other great disorders. Thus was tranquillity again restored to the territories lately acquired by the British, and also to many fertile districts immediately beyond their frontier. The peaceful peasants could again sow and irrigate their pleasant fields in security; and, in “the places of drawing water,” the timid women of the Indian villages were again delivered from their fear.

Shortly after this service, colonel Wellesley was appointed to accompany general Baird on an expedition projected by the marquis Wellesley against Batavia, and he quitted his command in the Mysore., This expedition, owing to some misunderstanding between the admiral commanding in the Indian seas and the governor-general, as to the extent of the power which the latter was authorized to assume, was abandoned by the marquis. The force under general Baird was ordered to Egypt, and colonel Wellesley was remanded to the government of Seringapatam.

It seems to have been the intention at home that colonel Wellesley should have proceeded to Egypt with the contingent furnished by the Indian army; for lie was actually gazetted to the local rank of a brigadier-general in that country. A scene, however, of very active and important operations was just about to open upon his prospects in India; and, with a separate and independent command, he soon gave to the name of Wellesley that splendor which did ever after increase, till at last it shone out, effulgent in meridian glory, over the field of Waterloo.

It may readily be supposed that the Mahratta chiefs had viewed the late successes of the British in Mysore with an evil eye. In the policy which had suggested the destruction of Tippoo’s kingdom, and in the power which that prompt, vigorous, and decisive measure had exhibited, they saw, or suspected, the danger of their own states. The British government, desirous to establish such an alliance with the peishwah as might preserve the general tranquillity, made offer to that prince of a portion of the territories conquered from Tippoo, and such other proposals as indicated a sincere desire to preserve with that court relations of the most strict amity. The territory was refused, and the proposals were rejected. The secret of this refusal lay in the simple fact, that Scindia, with a large army, and almost the whole of his French brigades, continued at Poonah, and controlled every action of the court.

In June, 1802, intelligence of the peace of Amiens reached India, which was thus reopened to French adventurers and French intrigue. Fortunately, at this very moment, the two chiefs, Scindia and Holkar, were at variance. The latter, a fierce man, always in his element when in the work of devastation, was laying waste the country of the other; that part of it, at least, which lies north of the Nerbuddah. If, however, as was probable, Scindia should obtain, by the defeat of his rival, the sole ascendency in the Mahratta empire, the English foresaw that the weight of its military resources would assuredly, sooner or later, be directed against themselves. There could be little doubt, from the constitution of his army, and from the influence of his French officers, that he might, and would, establish a military power in the heart of India, by which the very existence of the British government in the East would be endangered. The country of the peishwah had been now the scene of continual conflict for years, and was greatly exhausted by the constant influx of fresh and hungry hordes of horse, who came to fight, under one banner or another, for the sovereignty of the Mahratta empire. It was evident that these lawless crowds, if not impelled by their natural thirst for plunder, must soon be driven to invade our territories, or those of the nizam, our ally, from the mere want of food.

In the autumn of 1802, Holkar came down upon Poonah in great strength, and compelled Scindia to battle. The peishwah was under an obligation to join Scindia with his troops, and promised, moreover, his personal presence in the field. On the day of battle he mounted his elephant, indeed, and took seat in his war howdah; but nothing was further from his intention than risking his person among the spearmen of Holkar. He therefore lingered near the walls of the city, ready alike for flight or congratulation. Holkar won the day, and, upon the very earliest report from the scene of conflict, which showed clearly to which side victory inclined, the peishwah, whose cunning was as notorious as his cowardice, fled away. He proceeded to Bassein, in Guzerat, and here very readily concluded a treaty with the British; whereby he consented to receive a subsidiary force, to cede territory for its subsistence, and to discharge all French and foreign adventurers from his service. The Madras army, under the command of general Stuart, advanced to the banks of the Toombudra to support this treaty. Colonel Wellesley, in the spring of 1802, had been promoted to the rank of major-general; and in that rank he now again took the field. He was, upon this occasion, detached with a select corps in front of general Stuart, and directed to march on Poonah, to drive away the troops of Holkar, and make safe the return of the peishwah, who was already on his way again to take possession of his capital. In co-operation with the subsidiary force of the Deccan, which moved under the orders of colonel Stevenson, he advanced rapidly. On his route, intelligence reached him that Amrat Rao, a relation of Holkar, and a chief, had threatened to plunder the city before he departed north. General Wellesley, with that promptitude and perseverance which have always marked his discharge of duty, broke up instantly, performed a march of sixty miles in thirty hours, and entered Poonah with his cavalry on the 20th of April: the Mahrattas fled at his approach, and the city was saved. The climate and season considered, this was a prodigious exertion for the European part of his force; indeed, for all. It is remarkable, however, but true, that, for a brief campaign, the Europeans in India, from their pride and energy, and from a certain vigor of original constitution, will endure hardship, exposure to the sun, and fatigue, better than the majority of the natives; but, afterwards, alas! they pay the heavy price of their exertions. When the moral excitement has passed away, they often sink into supineness; disease invades them, and the gallant fellows wither into yellow and bloodless men; and, while yet scarce at mid-age themselves, so die. It is well to mark these things; for thousands upon thousands of soldiers, in all armies, and in all countries, sink down into early graves, which their own services have dug, without the eclat of battle,—without one leaf of laurel to mingle with the unwelcome cypress.

Happily the noble subject of these memoirs was gifted with a frame well calculated for the sustaining of all fatigues, and a sound, vigorous constitution. General Wellesley was a little above the middle height, well limbed, and muscular; with little encumbrance of flesh beyond that which gives shape and manliness to the outline of the figure; with a firm tread; an erect carriage; a countenance strongly patrician, both in feature, profile, and expression; and an appearance remarkable and distinguished: few could approach him on any duty, or on any subject requiring his serious attention, without being sensible of a something strange and penetrating in his clear light eye. Nothing could be more simple and straightforward than the matter of what he uttered; nor did he ever in his life affect any peculiarity or pomp of manner, or rise to any coarse, weak loudness in his tone of voice. It was not so that he gave expression to excited feeling.

It may be here with propriety observed, and it is important to the younger officers who may read this, that general Wellesley was a man temperate in all his habits; using the table, but above its pleasures: and it is not to be found on record, that he was ever the slave of any of those frailties, without an occasional subjection to which few men pass the fiery ordeal of a soldier’s life. He was, however, much in camps; and a camp is so truly the nursery of manly virtues, that few officers advanced in life can look back upon days so unoffending, or nights of such light repose, as those passed in the ready field. To sum all up, he was a British nobleman serving his king and country with heart and hand; and while British noblemen continue to do thus, may their lands be broad, their mansions wide, and their names honored!

The peishwah again entered Poonah, and was again enthroned upon his own musnud, on the 13th of May. The defensive alliance with him having been thus peaceably effected, it was hoped that Scindia would return quietly to his own country. This hope was vain. Scindia and the rajah of Berar, who were together in the field, made a menacing movement towards the frontier of our ally, the nizam. Explanation of this conduct was immediately demanded: the replies were evasive. Information was just at this time received of a secret and active correspondence between Scindia and Holkar; and it was privately known that a league hostile to the British was on the very eve of being concluded.

Under all these circumstances, the marquis Wellesley, with that large and comprehensive wisdom which sees when and where to delegate authority, invested the officers in command of the armies of Hindostan and the Deccan with full civil and political powers; for, in the upper provinces of the Bengal government, as well as in the Deccan, our troops were in the field. The army of Hindostan was commanded by lord Lake.

To major-general Wellesley, however, in particular, was sent a specific authority to conclude peace or to engage in hostilities, as his judgment, guided by his knowledge of the objects of government, might suggest to be most advantageous for the public interests. The major-general immediately demanded of Scindia that he should separate his army from that of the rajah of Berar, and retire across the Nerbuddah. He promised, on his own part, that the British troops should resume their ordinary stations the very moment that this requisition was complied with.

Oriental diplomatists are grand masters in all the little arts of evasion and delay, deceit and falsehood. Seldom, however, was a man born better calculated to deal with such diplomatists than general Wellesley. He saw through them, and had a straightforward method of dealing, and a bold and fearless decision, which at once confused and confounded them.

They continued their professions of good faith, and they repeated proposals already rejected, till it was evident to the general that time enough to perfect their plans and to prepare the hostile combinations was their sole object The general, with his forces, awaited the issue of the negotiations in a camp near Walkee, no great distance from the city of Ahmednuggur, a strong fort belonging to Scindia, and situate about eighty miles from Poonah. It was on the 6th of August he learned that his political agent colonel Collins, acting up to the true spirit of his instructions, had quitted the camp of Scindia. There had just been a heavy fall of rain; and, from the state of the roads, which immediately near him lay over soft cotton ground, it was not possible for him to move on the 7th, but on the morning of the 8th he broke up the encampment, and marched to Ahmednuggur. The town, or pettah of this place, is defended by a very lofty wall of masonry, without any ramparts, and flanked at every angle or bend by a tower. This pettah was garrisoned by a regular battalion of Scindia’s infantry, supported by a body of those brave mercenaries, the Arabs, who are often found in the fortresses of the Deccan. A body of horse was encamped immediately behind the town, in the open space between it and the fort General Wellesley directed the assault of the pettah the very moment he came before it. The place was gallantly carried by escalade, with the loss of 118 killed mid wounded. The suffering was principally from the Arabs, who, both on the towers and in the streets, offered a brave but ineffectual resistance. Lieutenant-colonels Harness and Wallace, and captain Vesey, with the flank companies of the 78th, the 74th, and 1st battalion 3d native infantry, performed this service rapidly, and in a daring and dauntless style. On the 10th the general opened a battery against the fort The killedar proposed to treat, and requested that the fire might cease while the terms were under discussion. The general expressed his readiness to treat, but the guns continued to play upon the fort On the 11th the killedar sent out vakeels to offer a surrender; but it was not till five in the evening that his hostages arrived in the British camp, nor till that very hour would the general allow his batteries to cease their fire for a moment, save to cool the guns. On the 12th the killedar and a garrison of 1400 men marched out He was permitted to take away his own private property, and that of the inhabitants was also preserved to them. This fortress secured the communication with Poonah, afforded a safe depôt, and was the centre and the capital of a district yielding 634,000 rupees.

On the 24th general Wellesley crossed the Godavery, with the whole of his force, and reached the large and noble city of Aurungabad on the 29th. There are pleasant breaks in the hot toils of marching and campaigning in India, when a place is approached that rewards the gaze, as riding slowly up, dome, cupola, and tall minar rise grandly in the distance;—objects singularly noble and picturesque in themselves, but doubly so with the adjuncts of the palm-tree and feathery cocoa-nut, and that sunset sky, where long dark stripes, of the very blackest purple, divide the deep, the glowing vermilion, after a manner that no painter either could or would dare to copy. These things, and a soowarree, perhaps, coming on the way with huge elephant, and camels, and long-maned horses, fretting handsome under their weighty housings, and their turbaned riders, and all the historic associations that crowd up to cultivated minds at the sight;—these are the bieguilements of Indian marches; and are, after different manners and degrees, delightful alike to the march-worn soldier, and to the thoughtful leader riding in the van.

As soon as the enemy heard of the arrival of general Wellesley at Aurangabad, they moved from Jalna to the southward and eastward, menacing a march upon Hyderabad. The general marching eastward, along the left bank of the Godavery, frustrated their design effectually; and, by the same movement, covered the safe advance of two important convoys coming up from Moodgul. The enemy now returned to the northward of Jalna. Colonel Stevenson attacked and carried that fort on the 2d of September: upon the night of the 9th he surprised a detached encampment of the enemy, created no small disturbance and alarm, and caused them much loss. The confederate chieftains had hitherto been marching solely with their cavalry, supported by a few thousand of the irregular foot, armed with matchlocks. They were now joined by sixteen battalions of regular infantry, and a large train of artillery, under the command of French officers. The whole of these forces were collected at Bokerdun, and lay between that place and Jaffierabad.

On the 21st of September, general Wellesley and colonel Stevenson met and conferred at Budnapoor. They here arranged a combined attack of the enemy for the morning of the 24th. Stevenson was detached by the western route, the general himself taking the eastern; in order that by this division of the force they might be enabled to effect the passage of the defiles in one day, and by occupying both prevent the enemy from escaping to the southward;—a manœuvre by which they might otherwise have avoided the encounter of our army at that time, and, perhaps, altogether. The common hircarrahs of the country reported the enemy to be at Bokerdun; and, according to the information which he had received about roads and distances, the general directed his march, so as to encamp within twelve miles of that place on the 21st When on the morning of that day he arrived at the proposed halting ground, he learned, to his surprise, that he was only six miles from Bokerdun. At the same time intelligence was brought, that the cavalry of the Mahratta camp were already in movement to the rear, and that the infantry and guns were preparing to follow. The general determined to march upon the infantry, and engage it He sent a messenger to Stevenson, then about eight miles to his left, to apprize him of this intention, and to direct his advance.

The camp colors were plucked from the ground, and the little army of Wellesley marched on. With the 19th light dragoons, and three regiments of native cavalry under colonel Maxwell, the general himself advanced to reconnoitre. The infantry followed. After a march of about four miles, from an elevated plain in front of their right he beheld the Mahratta camp. A host of near 50,000 combatants, horse, foot, and artillery, lay strongly posted behind the river Kaitna. A smaller stream, called the Juah, flowed past their rear; and its waters joined those of the Kaitna at a point considerably beyond their left, leaving there a vacant peninsulated piece of ground of some space. The line of the enemy ran east and west along the northern bank of the Kaitna. The infantry lay upon the left, and all the guns. The position of this wing was a little retired upon the Juah, having its point d'appui on the village of Assaye, which leaned upon that river. The right consisted entirely of cavalry. The north bank of the Kaitna is high, rocky, and difficult; the front, for the most part, unassailable.

Upon his bay Arabian sat Wellesley, just opposite the enemy’s right, then distant about a mile and a half, and presenting to his view, in one magnificent mass, 30,000 horses. The cavalry under Maxwell formed up their brilliant line, and remained steady. Wellesley with rapid glance surveyed the ground. From beneath the thick plumes of red horse-hair, which drooped over their bronzed cheeks, the manly eyes of the bold 19th dragoons looked on severely. The general resolved for battle. That this was the calm decision of a consulted judgment is not probable; but “there is a tide in the affairs of men:" he felt it swelling in his bosom, and took it at the happy ebb.

A body of the enemy’s horse moved out, advanced to within half a mile of the British cavalry, and threw out skirmishers, who fired a few shots. Some British troopers were ordered to drive back these skirmishers, and all again was quiet The general, observing a spot with a few houses beyond the left of the enemy, where there was probably a ford, and which he saw they had neglected to guard, resolved to pass the Kaitna at that point; to throw his small force entire upon that flank; to attack their infantry and guns; and thus to neutralize the presence of their vast cavalry, or compel them to bring it into action under very confusing disadvantages, and on a more confined field. A bright and bold conception.

The general, bidding Maxwell keep his present ground for a time, went back, and brought up the infantry in person. With these last, in steady columns, he now moved down upon the river. They marched silent and firm, every man in his place. It was to be the triumph of discipline. The courage of the heart was to be aided by the quick eye, the obedient ear, and the keeping calmly in the ranks. A cannonade played upon their line of march as they approached the ford: it was distant, and without effect As they passed up out of the river, and the head of the column gained the clear ground above, a hold battery, within range, opened upon them hotly. It was at this the anxious moment of directing with care the formation of the lines for battle, that the orderly dragoon, riding close to the general, had his skull tom away by a cannon-ball. The horse, feeling the relaxed bridle and collapsing limb of his rider, fell a trembling, and kicked and plunged franticly, till he got quit of the corpse. An incident not worth the notice, but for the moment of its occurrence, and the trouble it caused to those immediately near.

Under this cannonade general Wellesley formed up his people in three lines; two of infantry, the third of his cavalry; which, as soon as the columns had crossed the ford, rode smartly down from their position, and took battle station in reserve. As a watching check upon the enemy’s right, were left the Mysore horse and some cavalry of the peishwah’s which marched with our army; but, though useful here, they could not be ventured in the fight

The order of battle being thus skilfully changed, the infantry of Scindia was compelled to present a new front They did so with greater ease than was expected. The line they now formed rested with its right upon the Kaitna, and its left upon the village of Assaye and the Juah. The front now presented by the enemy was one vast battery, especially towards the left, so numerous and weighty were the guns, and so thickly were they disposed immediately near the village.

The fire was rapid, furious, and terrible in execution: the British guns, few in number, opened as the line advanced, but were almost on the instant silenced. Their gunners dropped fast, and the cattle fell lacerated or killed beside them. With the fierceness of the struggle and the fearfulness of the hazard, the undaunted spirit of the general rose. He at once abandoned the guns, and directed an advance with the bayonet: with the main body he soon forced and drove the enemy’s right, possessing himself of their guns by a resolute charge.

During this movement, the pickets and 74th regiment were losing men so fast by the fire from Assaye, that a body of Mahratta horse, which, hastening to that flank, had moved round the village, charged them, and with severe effect; though the heart, or centre, of the 74th still held gallantly together. Maxwell, with his dragoons, rode swiftly to their rescue, and spurring hard upon their assailants, drove them, with great slaughter, across the Juah. Amid a shower of musketry and grape, this leader and his cavalry rode on through the enemy’s left: the gallant remnant of the pickets and 74th pressed on, and the battle was already won. The sepoys of the main body, possessed in great part the very ground on which the enemy had stood, and the guns which he had fought to the last, the gunners in many instances actually suffering themselves to be bayoneted at their posts, in others lying dead, as it seemed, under their cannon. These sepoys rushed on in pursuit Their officers could not control their elated ardor; but, happily the 78th British, upon the left of all this early exultation, stood firm and steady, with unbroken ranks. A cloud of the enemy’s horse hung dark upon the hill above, ready to burst, like a torrent, upon the brave confusion, but they durst not dash and break, as they must have done, upon that rock.

Some of Scindia’s routed battalions clustered confusedly near Assaye, where numbers of the infantry and gunners, who had cast themselves upon the earth, to avoid the sabres of the cavalry, by feigning death, started up, and joined them. This body attempted a new formation; again opened the guns; and renewed the battle.

A large column of the enemy, already in full retreat, rallied at the hopeful sound, turned, and formed again. These the brave Maxwell checked by a gallant charge, and in this good service closed his honorable life. Among the last efforts of a day of efforts was a second attack of the formidable artillery near the village of Assaye. This general Wellesley led up in person, at the head of the 78th and 7th native cavalry. The enemy fled without awaiting the shock; but as the general was advancing, his horse, struck by a cannon-shot that carried away its leg, fell under him. A field, flowing with blood, black with abandoned cannon, and covered with slain, remained in possession of the British. It was near dark when the firing ceased. That night Wellesley lay down, and slept upon the field of battle. For a time, this day, “the die had spun doubtful;" but the secret impulse which prompted him to give the battle, did still, through all its thunder, whisper in his ear, “Victory !” The toss and fiery tramp of his favorite Arab were stilled in death, but the spur of the rider was not cold. A favoring Providence had shone kind on his bold hopes, and covered his head in battle. This success involved mighty consequences. “Never,” says Dr. Southey, “was any victory gained under so many disadvantages. Superior arms and discipline have often prevailed against as great a numerical difference; but it would be describing the least part of this day’s glory to say, that the numbers of the enemy were as ten to one: they had disciplined troops in the field under European officers, who more than doubled the British force; they had a hundred pieces of cannon, which were served with perfect skill; and which the British, without the aid of artillery, twice won with the bayonet”

The loss of his little band was a third killed and wounded: the sepoys had vied with the British in ardor; and the native cavalry had rode stirrup to stirrup with the heroes of the 19th dragoons. Of the enemy, twelve hundred were found dead upon the field; their wounded were countless, and scattered over all the immediate neighborhood.

Scindia now wrote, by a minister, to general Wellesley, artfully inviting him to send an officer to the Mahratta camp to treat. This the general of course refused; but expressed his readiness to receive, in his own encampment, any person duly empowered by the confederates to negotiate terms of peace. Operations were continued. Burhanpoor surrendered to colonel Stevenson on the 16th of October, and the strong fort of Asseerghur capitulated on the 21st. On the 11th of November, Scindia, with little sincerity of intention for peace, sent an ambassador to the British camp. After various conferences a truce was agreed upon between Scindia and the British in the Deccan and Guzerat The principal conditions were, that Scindia’s people should occupy a position forty miles east of Ellichpoor, and that the British should not advance farther into his territories. This truce was concluded the 23d of November. While it was going forward, general Wellesley had descended the Bajoorah pass to co-operate with colonel Stevenson, whose corps he had directed upon Gawilghur, a fort belonging to the rajah of Berar, with whom there had been no cessation of hostilities. Upon the 28th of November the general came up with a large body of Scindia’s horse in company with the army of Berar. Taking a just and ready advantage of the non-fulfilment of the conditions of the truce, he resolved to attack them. He therefore marched forwards to Parterly, where he was joined by colonel Stevenson. The day was sultry hot, the troops were fatigued, and he designed no further movement till the evening; but the enemy’s horse appeared in his front very strong, and skirmished with the cavalry of Mysore. The general supported the Mysoreans by pushing forward the pickets of infantry, and went out in person to reconnoitre, and take up ground for his camp. To his joy he found the confederates drawn up on the plains of Argaum in order of battle. Scindia’s horse formed one heavy mass upon the right; upon their left were the Berar infantry and guns, flanked by their own cavalry; while, on Scindia’s extreme right, hovered a vast cloud of pindarries and light troops. The united forces occupied a front of five miles, having the village of Argaum, with its gardens and inclosures, in their rear, and a plain, intersected by watercourses, in their front Scindia and Munnoo Bapoo, brother to the rajah of Berar, commanded this force in person. General Wellesley moved down on them in one compact column, and rapidly formed his lines of attack; the first composed of infantry, the second of cavalry. The Mogul and Mysore horse covered his left, and protected his rear. As the British line advanced, a large body of Persian soldiers, in the pay of Berar, rushed upon the 74th and 78th regiments, and maintained a short and desperate conflict at close quarters. They were destroyed. At the same time, the cavalry of Scindia made a fierce and crowded charge upon a battalion of native infantry (the 26th). They were received with steadiness, and repulsed with a loss so heavy, that they fled in confusion. Victorious on all points, the British line pressed forward; the enemy gave way in every direction, and abandoned eight-and-thirty pieces of artillery to their conquerors. The cavalry pursued by moonlight, and captured their elephants and baggage.

The army marched instantly to invest Gawilghur, a strong fortress upon a lofty and rocky height, fortified by such walls, ramparts, and towers, as look inaccessible. The heavy ordnance and stores were dragged, by hand, over a most difficult country. On the night of the 12th, colonel Stevenson broke ground, and erected two batteries against the north face of the fort; while general Wellesley, on his part, upon the steep side of a mountain, that looked on the south defences, constructed another battery, with a view to breach the wall near the south gate; or, at all events, to cause a diversion. On the 13th these batteries opened. On the night of the 14th the breaches in the walls of the outer fort became practicable; at ten the next morning the place was carried by assault. The columns on the north stormed the breaches, and the troops on the south side entered by escalade. After this blow the rajah of Berar sent in an ambassador, and proposed peace.

The negotiations were opened on the 16th of December, and concluded the following day. The general now communicated to Scindia that he should consider the truce at an end from December the 27th, and should act accordingly. On the 28th of December general Campbell dispersed a Pindarree force of 10,000 men at Moodianoor. On the 29th Scindia’s vakeels closed with the terms of general Wellesley; and a treaty of peace between their humbled master and the British government was ratified and signed.

The conduct of this war would of itself have conferred a deathless fame on general Wellesley. It was glory enough for a single life; and would have secured for him a niche in history.

A monument in memory of the battle of Assaye was erected at Calcutta. The inhabitants of that city presented him with a sword; and his own officers testified their attachment and admiration, by the gift of a golden vase.

In England, the thanks of parliament were voted him, and he was made a knight-companion of the Bath.

Of all the honors paid him, none was more affecting than the parting address of the people of Seringapatam. They implored “the God of all castes and of all nations to hear their constant prayer; and wherever greater affairs than the government of them might call him, to bestow on him health, glory, and happiness —a prayer by which the integrity and mildness of the British government were recognized in the person of its calm, firm representative.