Page:Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan.djvu/136

132 The promise of personal safety given to him was however set at naught, and on his surrender he was sent in chains to die miserably at Kabáldrúg.

This expedition, though professedly undertaken for the purpose of strengthening his weak northern frontier, implied extraordinary self-sufficiency and arrogance on the part of Tipú. He should have known that by provoking a collision with the warlike hosts of the Maráthás, guided by the astute policy of Náná Farnavís and containing such leaders as Mahdají Sindhia and Tukojí Holkar, he would bring down upon himself a cloud of enemies. Moreover, the peace with the English was but a hollow truce, and the Governor-General had shown a tendency to seek an alliance both with the Maráthás and the Nizám. In the beginning of 1786 the two latter powers, having arranged all the preliminary conditions, despatched their conjoint forces to invade Mysore, the Maráthás being commanded by Hari Panth, and the Nizám's contingent by Túhavvar Jang. Tipú, who had just returned from Coorg, advanced to encounter them, having first assumed the title of King (Pádsháh). After ordering his general, Búrhán-ud-dín, to stay the advance of the allies, who had captured Bádámi near Nargúnd, he himself proceeded to besiege Adoni, then held by the Nizám's troops. Muhabbat Jang, nephew of the Nizám, having vainly striven to buy off Tipú, owing to the town being the residence of many ladies of his uncle's and his own family, defended it so gallantly,