l. The reports
sent in to him, by those in charge of the royal preserves, could
scarcely be considered as satisfactory; as they stated that, owing
to the fact that for years there had been no hunting there, the
tigers had greatly increased in number, and had thinned down the
stags and, indeed, in some cases had so destroyed other game that
they were driven to escape from the enclosures, and to ravage the
villages. But beyond receiving these reports, and riding over
occasionally to the preserves, Harry had little to do save to take
part in any court ceremonies and, when called upon to do so, to
accompany the Peishwa in his walks in the palace garden. He
therefore determined to learn to read and write in Mahratta and,
for two or three hours a day, a man of the weynsh, or mercantile
class, came in to teach him. So careful was Nana Furnuwees, in
preventing Scindia's adherents from approaching the prince, that
Harry had nothing whatever to report on this head.

One day, when Mahdoo Rao, who had taken a great liking to him, was
walking in the garden, chatting familiarly to him of his life in
the country, and his adventures with tigers and other wild beasts,
he said:

"Have you seen my cousin, Bajee Rao?"

"No, Your Highness, I have never seen him."

"You have heard of him, of course, and nothing but good."

"That is so, Prince. It seems that, both in sports and learning, he
is wonderfully well instructed."

"I should like to see him," the prince said. "I admire what I have
heard of him, greatly, and it is hard that he should be shut up in
prison; and yet he is scarcely more a prisoner than I am."

Harry was struck with dismay.

"But Your Highness is in no way a prisoner!"

"I am not shut up in a fortress," the young prince said, "but I am
no more my own master than Bajee Rao is. Nana Furnuwees treats me
as if I were a child. He is, I know, devoted to me; but that makes
it no more pleasant. I can go where I like, but it is always with
my retinue. I cannot choose my own friends."

"Your Highness will forgive me, if I say that it is for your own
safety, and for the peace of the country that your minister watches
over you so jealously; and doubtless he thinks that, having been
the chief adviser to your family, for so many years, having guarded
it so successfully from those who would have lessened your
authority, for the present it is of the greatest importance that he
should continue to guide the state."

"I am, a