DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.25988#0400
376 Life of Mountstuart Elphinstone. cn. xt.
bourhoocl in every clirection, showed that the long expected
conflict was at hand.
To seize and destroy the Residency was the first act of the
enemy. As no preparations coulcl nnder the circumstances
be macle for a sudden evacuation, all Mr. Elphinstone’s papers
and a valuable library shared in the general destruction. So
complete was it, that Mr. Elphinstone, reporting these events
to Sir Evan Nepean, playfully remarks,. 4I beg you will excuse
this scrawl, but all my writing implements, with everything I
have except the clothes on my back, form part of the blaze of
the Residency, which is now smoking in sigkt.’
I rnust here again borrow the picturesque description of
the scene which presented itself to the party retiring from the
Residency from the narrative of Gfrant Duff, whose history,
tedious while carrying us through all the windings of Mahratta
intrigues, rises into animation wbile describing the scenes in
which he took a part:—
4 Wittojee Gfuickwar had scarcely quitted the Residence
when intelligence was brought that the army was moving out
on the west side of the city. There was a momentary con~
sultation about defending the Residency, but it was instantly
abandoned as impracticable, and it was determinecl to retire
to Kirkee, for which purpose the nature of the ground afforded
great facility. Tlie river Moola, betwixt the Sungum and the
village of Ivirkee, forms two curves like the letter S inverted,
Tlre Residency and the village were both on the same sicle of
the riyer, but at the former there was a forcl ancl near the
latter a bridge, so that the party by crossing at the ford had
the river between them and the Peshwa’s troops the greater
part of the way. From the Residency no part of the Mahratta
army was yisible, excepting bodies of infantry which were
assembling along the tops of the acljoining heights, with the
intention of cutting aff the Residency from the camp, ancl,
having this object in view, they did not molest individuals.
On ascending one of the eminenees on which they were
forming, the plain beneath presented at that moment a most
imposing speotacle, This plain then covered with grain termi-
bourhoocl in every clirection, showed that the long expected
conflict was at hand.
To seize and destroy the Residency was the first act of the
enemy. As no preparations coulcl nnder the circumstances
be macle for a sudden evacuation, all Mr. Elphinstone’s papers
and a valuable library shared in the general destruction. So
complete was it, that Mr. Elphinstone, reporting these events
to Sir Evan Nepean, playfully remarks,. 4I beg you will excuse
this scrawl, but all my writing implements, with everything I
have except the clothes on my back, form part of the blaze of
the Residency, which is now smoking in sigkt.’
I rnust here again borrow the picturesque description of
the scene which presented itself to the party retiring from the
Residency from the narrative of Gfrant Duff, whose history,
tedious while carrying us through all the windings of Mahratta
intrigues, rises into animation wbile describing the scenes in
which he took a part:—
4 Wittojee Gfuickwar had scarcely quitted the Residence
when intelligence was brought that the army was moving out
on the west side of the city. There was a momentary con~
sultation about defending the Residency, but it was instantly
abandoned as impracticable, and it was determinecl to retire
to Kirkee, for which purpose the nature of the ground afforded
great facility. Tlie river Moola, betwixt the Sungum and the
village of Ivirkee, forms two curves like the letter S inverted,
Tlre Residency and the village were both on the same sicle of
the riyer, but at the former there was a forcl ancl near the
latter a bridge, so that the party by crossing at the ford had
the river between them and the Peshwa’s troops the greater
part of the way. From the Residency no part of the Mahratta
army was yisible, excepting bodies of infantry which were
assembling along the tops of the acljoining heights, with the
intention of cutting aff the Residency from the camp, ancl,
having this object in view, they did not molest individuals.
On ascending one of the eminenees on which they were
forming, the plain beneath presented at that moment a most
imposing speotacle, This plain then covered with grain termi-