Page:Our Indian Army.djvu/358

334 artillery was altogether inadequate, for nothing is so difficult to breach as the mud wall of an Indian fort; and our engineering department seems to have been deplorably defective. The other arms of the service behaved admirably throughout; but the storming-parties were shamefully sacrificed, by being sent against a wide, unfordable ditch, and an impracticable breach, which, it must be admitted, was admirably defended.

The English being no longer in a condition to renew hostile operations, on the night of the 22nd of February the ordnance was withdrawn from the batteries, and the troops from the trenches, in order to repair the losses sustained, and to bring forward more adequate means of attack. The Rajah, however, apprehensive of the final issue, and, seeing that certain ruin must accompany the fall of his capital, made very advantageous overtures, including the payment of twenty lacs of rupees, as the price of peace. And such was the situation of affairs in the English camp that Lord Lake was induced to accept the conditions, and to conclude a treaty on the 10th of April.

Holkar being thus deserted by his last ally, the Rajah of Bhurtpore, was reduced almost to the condition of a fugitive; but at this crisis, when the whole peninsula of India was, as it were, at our feet, the whole system of our policy underwent an important change. The Marquis Wellesley, whose admirable government had wrought such wonders, retired, and was succeeded by Lord Cornwallis, whose instructions from the Court of Directors were to proceed on principles every way opposite to those of his predecessor, and to conclude peace almost at any price. Lord Cornwallis died soon after his arrival; but his principles were so effectually carried out by his successor, Sir George Barlow, that Scindia, the Mahratta leader, obtained the highly-important fortress of Gwalior, which he made his residence and capital; and Holkar, who had been driven to seek refuge amongst the Sikhs, to his great astonishment, was granted peace on terms so advantageous as allowed him to regain almost all that he had lost during