Mahratta war, in which, it must be confessed, we reaped but little either of glory or advantage.
For many years after this our relations with the Mahrattas were those of amity and alliance, produced by a common dread of the growing power and ambition of the dynasty of Hyder Ali: thus we have seen them joined with the British in successive leagues, and affording a tumultuary aid in the contests which brought the power of Tippoo to an end. The history of the confederation, however, was remarkably distinguished by the rise of Scindia to a pre-eminence which made him decidedly superior to all its other leaders. His territory being contiguous to the southern states, and to the fragments of the Mogul empire, he added to it successively these different possessions; and at length, amid the dissensions of the imperial court, Shah Aulum, who still retained the name, revered even in its downfall, of Mogul Emperor, placed himself under his protection. In this manner that chief became master of Agra, Delhi, and the surrounding territories, while he exercised all that now remained of imperial power.
After some struggles to maintain himself in his elevated but precarious and difficult position, Scindia sought to strengthen his military power by means not resorted to by any of his predecessors. He enlisted into his army the various warlike races in the north of India – the valiant Rajpoot horsemen, the Gosseins, a religious sect whose tenets do not prevent them from taking arms, and even Mahomedan soldiers who had been thrown out of the Mogul service. But the force on which he chiefly relied was a corps of regular infantry, organised and disciplined in the European manner by a French adventurer named De Boigné. This body, which at first consisted of only two battalions, had been rapidly augmented till it amounted to three brigades, each comprising 5,000 infantry, 500 cavalry, and forty pieces of cannon. He had, besides, a separate train of artillery, and was supported by a mass of irregular foot. A
