Page:Our Indian Army.djvu/451

Rh, and soon afterwards conferred on him the command of the important fortress of Ahmednuggur, repeated the observation which General Smith had made, in his official report to the Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone, that the action of Corregaum was "one of the most brilliant affairs ever achieved by any army, in which the European and native soldiers displayed the most noble devotion and most romantic bravery under the pressure of thirst and hunger almost beyond human endurance."

In the course of the 3rd of January, General Smith's division having arrived at Corregaum, the Peishwa and his Mahrattas fled back to the table-land near the sources of the Kistna. Finding himself now a hopeless fugitive, and learning the triumphs of his enemy in other quarters, Bajee Rao made overtures for a treaty, hoping to be allowed to retain, though in a reduced condition, his rank as a sovereign. But the Governor-General, on considering his long course of hostility, and the treacherous attack made at so critical a moment, had determined to erase his name from the list of Indian princes, and abolish altogether the title of Peishwa. Britain was to exercise the sovereign sway in all the territories which had belonged to him; though, in order to soothe in some degree the irritated feelings of the Mahratta people, the Rajah of Sattara, the descendant of Sevajee, still deeply venerated even after his long depression, was to be restored to some share of his former dignity. To follow up this purpose, General Smith laid siege to Sattara, which was still the nominal capital of the Mahratta empire, and which surrendered to him on the 10th of February, the day on which he first appeared before it. A junction now took place between the forces of General Smith and General Pritzler, the object of which was to form the entire force at disposal for field-service into two divisions: one to be composed wholly of cavalry and light troops, to keep up an active pursuit of the enemy; the other of infantry, with an ample battering-train, to reduce forts, gradually