Page:Our Indian Army.djvu/454

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
430
OUR ANGLO-INDIAN ARMY.

in a pension of £100,000 per annum, he should renounce the dignity of Peishwa, with all his claims as a sovereign, and spend the rest of his days in some holy city, at a distance from the seat of his former dominion. The village of Bettoor, or Brimatwar, near Cawnpore, on the Ganges, was finally fixed upon for his residence. There he resigned himself to voluptuous indulgences, to which, it is said, he had been always addicted, and sought to drown in them every recollection of his former schemes and greatness.

When the army of the Peishwa broke up, Trimbuckjee Dainglia retired to the neighbourhood of Nassuck, a large town and place of pilgrimage on the Godavery, principally inhabited by Brahmins. Here, among crowds of Hindoo pilgrims and fakirs, he remained concealed for some time, in spite of the active search making for him. At last, after a fruitless attempt to make terms through Sir John Malcolm, Captain Swainston, one of the heroes of Corregaum, was detached with a body of horse in search of him. The detachment marched with so much rapidity that no intelligence of their approach preceded them, and they were enabled to surround the village where the fugitive lay. Trimbuckjee was reclining on a cot when the gates of the house were forced, and the British troops entered. He had just time to fly to the upper part of the house, and conceal himself among some straw. From this covert he was taken without any resistance, and sent to Tannah, the place of his former confinement; but he was shortly afterwards sent round to Bengal, and conveyed to the rock of Chunargur, near Benares, where he spent the remainder of his life. His allowance from Government was liberal, and his imprisonment light and easy.

It now only remains to trace the final career of the Rajah of Berar, the last member of the great Mahratta confederacy, who still threatened to give some trouble to the British Government. As none of the last transactions at Nagpore could be brought home to Appa Sahib,