to raise a respectable number of troops, but having no strongholds or depots to rely on, and fearful of the consequences of the struggle he had challenged, he arranged with the Killadar of Asírgarh to give him shelter in that fort. He soon made for this refuge, and reached it in safety, accompanied by the Pindárí chief Chítu; but the Killadar, though he had no hesitation in receiving a Maráthá prince, was afraid to harbour a Pindárí, and the wretched man, rejected in the hour of danger and betrayed by false allies for their own most selfish advantage, was in consequence destroyed in the manner which has been already related.
Lord Hastings rightly judged that the ex-Bhonsla would fly for protection to Asírgarh, and while directing that in this event the Killadar was to be treated as a rebel, assembled a large force from the divisions of Malcolm, Doveton, and Adams, consisting of fifteen battalions, four regiments of cavalry, and a battering train, to reduce this formidable stronghold. The siege began on the 17th of March, 1819, and on the 9th of the following month the Killadar capitulated, when it was ascertained that his resistance was due to secret and pressing directions given by Sindhia himself, entirely at variance with the public declarations of that prince, who professed anxiety, and had issued orders that the fort should be surrendered in accordance with the treaty of Gwalior. Apá Sáhib also had again escaped and was nowhere to be found; but his power for mischief was now gone for ever, for
