spirators, remained with a slender party in his encampment. Having brooded over his troubles, he saw no remedy left but that of forsaking the country, and was consequently forced to retire towards the Carnatic. His object was to collect a sufficient force round him, with which he might return to Poona and resume hostilities. However, owing to the vulgar report that attributed Narain Rao's murder to him, every blade of grass that sprung from the ground was ready to plunge a dagger into his blood. For this reason, he found it impossible either to stay or reside in the Carnatic, so he hastened away to Surat.
The direst confusion had found its way into the kingdom, in consequence of the report of Narain Rao's death. At that critical juncture the pretender Bhao, who was confined in a stronghold in the Konkan territory, lying adjacent to the salt ocean, seized the opportunity of escaping by fraud and stratagem out of his prison, and having induced a party of men to place themselves under his orders, took possession of some of the forts and districts of that country. He was just on the point of waging open war, when Mahaji Sindhia Bahadur set out from Poona to the Konkan territory for the purpose of coercing him. On reaching his destination, he engaged in hostilities with Bhao, whereupon the latter's associates took to flight, and departed each by his own road. As Bhao was thus left alone, he went on board a ship in utter consternation with a view to save his life from that vortex of perdition; but death granted him no respite, and he fell alive into the hands
