enabled the commandant to drive them out in the confusion. In the beginning of January, 1791, fresh British troops arrived, without guns or stores. The next month preparations were made for an assault, but just as the assailants were about to advance from their cover, the commandant lodged lighted portfires among the fascines which filled the ditch, and blew up the causeway. The enterprise thus failed, and although Parasu Rám Bháo soon afterwards received some heavy guns from Poona, and mining operations were again prosecuted, little real progress was made. It was not till March 30 that the brave commandant, owing to scarcity of provisions, surrendered the fort which he had held for six months. The fall of Dhárwár led to the speedy reoccupation by the Maráthás of the whole province. Parasu Rám Bháo crossed the Tungábhadra and marched towards Seringapatam, while another force under Hari Panth proceeded by a more easterly route by way of Sírá in the same direction. The two armies effected a junction with Lord Cornwallis' troops at Cherkúli, as mentioned at the end of the last chapter.
Nizám Alí's contingent, aided by a small British force, assembled near Haidarábád in May, 1790, and, after protracted delays, invested the stronghold of Kópal[1]. The fort held out until April, 1791, a period
- ↑ This fortress is twenty miles west of the ruins at Hampi (the capital of the old Vijayanagar dynasty), which are of great interest to the archaeologist. The vast temple of Vittala is supported by richly carved monoliths twenty feet high, immense granite slabs forming the roof.
