Page:Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas.djvu/242

214 Daolát Ráo, caused him to hesitate for three months. When at last he did comply, the favourable moment had passed, and the Péshwa had thrown himself into the arms of the British Government for protection. In February, 1803, Perron despatched to Ujjén the fourth brigade under Dudrenec, and half of the newly-raised fifth brigade under Brownrigg. But it was too late. The treaty of Bassein had been signed.

The treaty of Bassein precipitated the conflict between Sindia and the British. It roused Daolát Ráo to a sense of his errors. In that treaty he saw not only the subversion of the vast plans of his predecessor but a threat against himself. Though invited to become a party to the defensive portion of the treaty he distinctly refused. Then probably for the first time in his life he understood the conception of Mádhají, finding himself as he did face to face with the dangers which Mádhají's scheme would have rendered impossible. Then he bestirred himself; then, at last, he sought to unite the Maráthás against the common foe. But he was too late. Holkar refused to join him. His preparations, though he sought to conceal and did deny them, were too patent.

The Governor-General of India, Marquess Wellesley, resolved then to anticipate him, and to bring the matter to the arbitrament of the sword. War was declared, and on the 8th August, 1803, an English force under General Lake crossed the frontier of Sindia's territory and marched straight on Aligarh.