Page:Mádhava Ráo Sindhia and the Hindu Reconquest of India.djvu/129

Rh chieftain of his own clan, Raiáji Sindhia, to demand tribute at the gates of Jaipur; and, when the Rájá, confiding in the combinations already effected, derisively refused compliance, it proved that Raiáji had no means of enforcing the demand. The Musalmán courtiers at Delhi rejoiced at the rebuff of their heathen master; even the feeble old Emperor manifested hostility; while, at the same time, he raised open complaints of the arbitrary conduct of his protector, and alleged himself to be ill-treated and inadequately supplied with money. In this general adversity, and when all his resources appeared likely to be insufficient to conduct a successful campaign in Rájputána, Sindhia suddenly found himself forced to detach two strong bodies of troops under Ambáji to encounter an incursion of the Sikhs to the northward of the capital.

He then took the field in person with the remainder of his troops, and marched towards Jaipur, attended by Muhammad Beg, Rána Khán—the ex-waterman—and by the corps of Appa Khándi and de Boigne, lately returned from Bundelkhand. The army so formed was the 'Imperial army,' and moved with something of imperial state: it was therefore the more easily harassed by what had once been the tactics employed against Aurangzeb. It was surrounded, its foragers and stragglers were cut off, and its supplies shortened. It was also in a disunited condition, and consequently not to be trusted for combined action.

In this state it was encountered by the allies at