Page:Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas.djvu/255

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
FOREIGN ADVENTURERS IN INDIA.
227

immediate return to his house. Yet, notwithstanding his oaths, and the pledge of his honour, Filoze himself arrested the Náná on his return from the interview (31st December, 1797) and made him over to his master. This act of his was resented in the most marked manner by the other adventurers at the court and in the camp of Daolát Ráo. They considered this baseness on the part of one of their number as a stain upon themselves as a body. When shortly afterwards, the Náná was released and restored to power, Michel Filoze, dreading his vengeance, fled to Bombay.

He was succeeded by his son Fidele. Fidele Filoze accompanied Daolát Ráo in his campaign against Holkar in 1801 at the head of six battalions. One of these, under Captain McIntyre, was cut off by Jeswant Ráo Holkar at Núrí; a second under George Hessing was destroyed at Ujjén (June 1801); the remaining four took part in the battle of Indúr (14th October, 1801). On this occasion Sindia's army, really commanded by an Englishman, Major Sutherland, gained a decisive victory. Strange to say, after that battle, to the gain of which he and his troops contributed, Fidele Filoze cut his throat. "The reasons for this suicide," writes Major L. F. Smith, so often referred to, "are various. Some say that he had carried on a traitorous correspondence with Jeswant Ráo Holkar previous to the battle of Indúr, and that he cut his throat to prevent the disgrace of condign punishment; others that he committed the act in a delirium." Major Smith