Page:History of the French in India.djvu/519

DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY LAW. 493 Subadar. But there were others who were able to C xf P * render him still greater service. In the employ of ^-^—i Salabat Jang were two Maratha chieftains, tributaries 1756. bound to follow him in the field, Ramchandr Jadao and Janujf Nimbalkar ; they commanded 6,000 horse, and, up to the time of which we are writing, had been con- spicuous for the efficiency and gallantry of their action. On one occasion, indeed, Januji had intercepted a corps of 600 Arabs and Abyssinians on their way to join Bussy from Surat, and, killing fifty, had made the rest prisoners. With both these men Bussy had come to an understanding. He arranged Avith them that in the projected attack upon Law, they should only feign to take a part, and they had promised to hang out distinc- tive banners as an indication to the French leader that from them he had nothing to fear. Due intimation of this was at once despatched to Law. Meanwhile, that officer, ignorant as yet of the means taken by Bussy to save him, had moved on the 11th from Megnapara, and entered a country, hilly and wooded, full of defiles, offering abundant opportunities to an enemy to retard his progress. In advance were 400 sipahis, under the command of Mahmud Khan ; then came the main body of French, with the remainder of the sipahis in the rear. After marching nine miles, some parties of the enemy appeared on the road, upon which the 400 French sipahis, who had been already corrupted by the intrigues of Muzaffar Beg, went over to them in a body. The French were immediately attacked by the enemy, who harassed them by constant firing and desultory charges as they threaded their way through the defile. At length, however, they came to an open plain, in which the French drew up and halted for the night. The enemy, whose powder had been damped by a heavy rain that had fallen, retreated to a little village at the foot of a hill. Before daybreak, the French marched against this village, and, though sur-