At three in the afternoon I
arrived at Chambery, the capital of Savoy. It is a large handsome city,
situated in a fruitful valley, with a great many gardens and orchards
surrounding it. There is a strong garrison here. Among the many _maisons de
plaisance_ in the environs of this city, the most distinguishable is the
villa of General De Boigne, who has passed the greatest part of his life in
India, in the service of Scindiah, one of the Mahratta chiefs;[73] and it
was by De Boigne's assistance that Scindiah, from being a petty chief, with
not more than three or four hundred horse, became the founder of a powerful
kingdom, comprized chiefly of the provinces of the Ganges and Jumna, torn
from the Mogol Empire, whose Sovereign fell into the hands of Scindiah.
Scindiah caused the Mogol Emperor's eyes to be put out, and kept him as a
state prisoner in Delhi, till the year 1805, when on the Mahrattas engaging
in war with the English, Scindiah was defeated by Lake and lost the greater
part of his conquests. De Boigne had quitted India in 1796, long before
this rupture took place, and at that time Scindiah had a fine regular army
of thirty battalions of 1,000 men, each disciplined, armed and equipped in
the European manner.
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