of security to private property, and of special protection against the Mahrattas.
The inhabitants, who had taken refuge in the fort, proceeded in the direction of Madoor, under the care of an English escort; the commander of which had orders to accompany the travellers the entire distance to Madoor, if required. All, however, appeared quiet, and not a single Mahratta was visible on the route. Fear was thus dispelled; and when about half the march was accomplished, the leader of the retiring party intimated to the English officer that, as there was no reason to apprehend danger, it would be unnecessary to subject the escort to further trouble. It accordingly returned, but was no sooner at a sufficient distance to permit the manifestation of Mahratta enterprise than the freebooting allies of the British, in conformity with established custom, fell upon the unfortunate fugitives, and plundered them of everything they possessed.
Hooleadroog contained many state prisoners; and there the captors found new evidence of the Sultan's cruelty. "Among a number of captives," says an historian of the period, "that were bound in chains of various construction at Hooleadroog, several, who had their ankles fastened asunder by a heavy iron bar of about eighteen inches in length, had from habit acquired a straddling amble, which, when liberated, they could not for a length of time alter or amend; some, from having been closely pinioned, could move neither arm; others had acquired a stoop, from which they were unable to stand erect; in short, as most of them had been confined in this wretched state for a period of about ten years, there were few indeed who had not lost the power of some limb or other."[1]
After having summoned some of the other Droogs in this vicinity, the Anglo-Indian Army reached Bangalore on the 11th of June. Before their arrival at that place a plan of future proceedings had been arranged, and the
- ↑ Mackenzie's "Sketches of the War with Tippoo Sultan."
