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168 NAGPUR DISTRICT. driven from the smaller of the two eminences which form the Sítábaldi position. A desperate fight, however, finally ended in the complete defeat of the enemy. Apá Sáhib attempted to disavow any connection with the attack; but the Resident had been strengthened by fresh troops, and he now demanded the surrender of the Rájá, and the disbandment of his army. The first point was conceded; the second was not gained till a battle had been fought close to Nágpur, in which, after an obstinate resistance, the Maráthás were utterly routed. At first it was resolved to retain Apá Sahib on the throne, subject to the control of the British; but his fresh intrigues, and the discovery of his complicity in the murder of his cousin, caused his arrest. Apá Sahib succeeded, however, in escaping to the Mahadeo Hills, and ultimately * made his way to the Punjab. A grandson of Raghují 11., still of tender years, was now raised to the throne under the title of Raghují 11. During his minority, the Resident administered the country till 1830. On the death of Raghují 111. without issue in 1853, the State was declared to have lapsed to the British Government, and was administered down to 1861 by a commission of officers under the Commissioner of the Nágpur Province.' When tidings of the Mutiny reached Nagpur in May 1857, a scheme for rising was immediately formed in the lines of the irregular cavalry, in conjunction with the Musalmáns of the city. The night of June the 13th was the time agreed upon, and the ascent of a fire-balloon from the city was to give the signal to the cavalry. Meantime, to allay suspicion, the cavalry formally volunteered for service against the mutineers in Upper India. On the 13th June, a few liours before the time fixed, a squadron received orders to march towards Seoní as part of a force moving northward from Kámthi(Kamptee). This took them by surprise, and they at once sent a dafádár, named Dáúd Khán, to the infantry lines to rouse the regiment. Dáúd Khán was, however, seized by the first man he addressed. It was now discorered that the cavalry were saddling their horses, and the alarm became general; the ladies were sent for safety to Kámthi, and troops summoned from that place ; cannon were brought up to defend the arsenal, and the guns on the Sítábaldi Hill got into position. Everything now depended on the temper of the regular infantry and cavalry. When Lieutenant Cumberlege went to take command, he found that the regiment had fallen in of their own accord, ready to execute any orders. The conspirators in the city now knew they had failed, and the fire-balloon was never sent up. The cavalry too lost all heart, and unsaddled their horscs. Subsequently they were turned out without arms, and with the regular infantry and cavalry in front and on each flank. Several of the native officers, together with two Musalmans of the city, both men of high birth and position, were convicted and lianged from the rainparts of the