he moved about the country, failed to reach him. One at last found him and starting with 200 picked horsemen he passed during the night through the Maratha lines and safely entered the city. Cheering the garrison they defended the city with vigour, foiling an attempt to surprise and driving back an open attack. Their deputies turned out of the city and Jawan's garrison gradually strengthened from outside, the Maratha chances of success seemed small. But Jawan was badly off for money, and, in spite of levies on the townspeople, he could not find enough to pay his troops. Terms were agreed on, and, giving Jawan a sum of £10,000 (Rs. 1,00,000), the Marathas in April 1753 entered Ahmedabad. The siege had done the city lasting harm. The suburbs, deserted at the approach of the Marathas, were never re-peopled. The excessive greed of the Marathas as sole rulers of Ahmedabad caused great discontent. Knowing this, and learning that heavy rain had made great breaches in the city walls, Momin Khan II advanced from Cambay. Some of his men, finding a passage through one of the breaches, opened the gates, and his troops rushing in drove out the Marathas December 1755. Calling on Momin Khan to surrender, the Marathas at once invested the town. For more than a year the siege lasted, Momin Khan and his minister Shambhuram a Nagar Brahman, driving back all assaults, and at times dashing out in the most brilliant and destructive sallies. But the besieged were badly off for money, the pay of the troops was behind, and the people already impoverished were leaving the city in numbers. Tho copper pots of the runaways kept the garrison in pay for a time. But at last this too was at an end, and after holding out for a year and a quarter Momin Khan, receiving £10,000 (Rs. 1,00,000), gave up the city (April 1757). Maratha rule (1758–1817) The Peshwa and Gaekwad divided the revenues, the Peshwa, except that the Gaekwad held one gate and that his deputy remained in the city to see that his share of the revenue was fairly set apart, undertaking the whole management of the city. For nearly twenty-three years the city remained in Maratha hands. During the First Anglo–Maratha War (1775–1782), General Thomas Wyndham Goddard, acting in alliance with Fateh Singh Gaekwad against the Pune, with 6,000 troops stormed Bhadra Fort on