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In case of refusal, he threatened to storm the fort, and put all its defenders to the sword. Clive returned a defiant refusal, and the guns again opened on the second breach. On the 9th of November, the Mahrattas began to show themselves in the neighbourhood of the besieging army.
Anderson does not appear, he not having recorded anything upon that subject; but it appears that to the Resident, Bristow, who required to be informed whether the reception of the fugitive prince aforesaid in the Company's provinces would meet his approbation, he gave no answer whatsoever: by which criminal neglect, or worse, with regard to a brother of an ally of the Company, who showed a strong attachment and preference to the English nation, and by suffering him, without any known effort to prevent it, to attach himself to the cause and fortunes of the Mahrattas, who, he, the said Hastings, well knew, did keep up claims upon several parts of the dominions of Oude, and had with difficulty been persuaded to include the Nabob in the treaty of peace, he, having suffered him first to languish at home in poverty, and then to fly abroad for subsistence, and afterwards taking no step and countenancing no negotiations for his return from his dangerous place of refuge, at the same time that several of his, the said Hastings's, creatures had each of them allowances much more considerable than would have sufficed for the satisfaction and comfort of him, the said fugitive prince, was guilty of a high crime and misdemeanor.
The anger of Hyder Ali, roused by the capture of Mahé, was increased by imprudent thwarting on the part of the governor of Madras. Seeing the English entangled with the Mahrattas, and hearing that a French armament was expected on the Coromandel coast, he quietly prepared for war.
They did so, trusting to the strength of the rocky ridge on which they were posted; but that advantage, great as it was, by no means rendered them a match in close fight for the weighty arms and the determined resolution of the Europeans, any more than the discharges of their powerful batteries availed the Mahrattas in the latter part of the battles of Assaye and Laswaree, or, more recently, the Sikhs in the desperate conflict at Ferozepore in the Punjaub.
It is plain, therefore, that he did all along concur with the Mahrattas in their designs against the said king and his ministers, under the treacherous pretence of supporting the authority of the former against the latter, and did contrive and effect the ruin of them all.
In 1783 his hatred of the English was ended by his sudden death. But he bequeathed it as a rich legacy to his son Tippu, a man as daring and as ambitious as his sire. Hastings won away by concessions the Mahrattas and the Nizam from the cause of Tippu.
To add to the general confusion, bands of Mahrattas, in numbers forming large armies, were constantly roaming through the country, and levying contributions on both the governments and the people.
And whence did the profits come? From the pockets of Hindu peasants. The Mahrattas of the Ratnagiri District supply most of the "labour" required in Bombay, and for these the company spread its nets. And by their incessant coming and going it amassed its wealth.
In the afternoon of the 26th, Ahmad's advanced guard reached Sambalka, about half-way between Sonpat and Panipat, where they encountered the vanguard of the Mahrattas.
The men stood irresolute and mute with terror; the women, trembling, knew scarcely whither to fly for refuge. 'Who are yonder ruffians? said I. A hundred voices yelped in reply some said the Pindarees, some said the Mahrattas, some vowed it was Scindiah, and others declared it was Holkar no one knew.
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