Page:Warren Hastings (Trotter).djvu/93

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END OF THE WAR .
87

honour of the day' — exclaimed the latter — 'and these banditti the profit.'

If Shujá-ud-daulá left his brave allies to do all the fighting, he did not forget to reward them with a liberal share of his gains. At the end of the campaign, which lingered fitfully to the close of the year, Champion's brigade received a donation of ten lakhs and a half, then equivalent to £130,000; a very fair allowance for so small a force[1].

Faiz-ullá Khán, who had unwillingly taken part in the war, withdrew the wrecks of the Rohillá army towards the Hills. It was not till August that Champion's brigade was called upon to complete its work. But the Rohillás were in no mood for further resistance. The Wazír had already offered them terms of peace. As their stores of food were running short, while Champion was nearing the mountains within which they had taken shelter, those terms were at last accepted by Faiz-ullá Khán, who, on payment of a heavy fine, was allowed to retain his father's fief of Rámpur. His followers, to the number of 18,000, were permitted or compelled to migrate across the Ganges into the districts around Meerut, which had been granted to the Rohillá, Zabita Khán, as a reward for his adherence to the Oudh Wazír[2].

That the conquest of Rohilkhand was stained by some of the cruelty and injustice so common in Eastern warfare, may be granted as a thing of course.

  1. Stubbs' History of the Bengal Artillery.
  2. Keene, Auber.