the Dooab. It will be as well to give a slight
account of the causes of a war which was speedily to rage through some
of the fairest portions of the Indian continent.

Shah Allum, the son of Shah Lollum, the descendant by the female line
of Nadir Shah (that celebrated Toorkomaun adventurer, who had wellnigh
hurled Bajazet and Selim the Second from the throne of Bagdad)--Shah
Allum, I say, although nominally the Emperor of Delhi, was in reality
the slave of the various warlike chieftains who lorded it by turns over
the country and the sovereign, until conquered and slain by some more
successful rebel. Chowder Loll Masolgee, Zubberdust Khan, Dowsunt Row
Scindiah, and the celebrated Bobbachy Jung Bahawder, had held for a
time complete mastery in Delhi. The second of these, a ruthless Afghan
soldier, had abruptly entered the capital; nor was he ejected from it
until he had seized upon the principal jewels, and likewise put out the
eyes of the last of the unfortunate family of Afrasiab. Scindiah came
to the rescue of the sightless Shah Allum, and though he destroyed
his oppressor, only increased his slavery; holding him in as painful a
bondage as he had suffered under the tyrannous Afghan.

As long as these heroes were battling among themselves, or as long
rather as it appeared that they had any strength to fight a battle, the
British Government, ever anxious to see its enemies by the ears, by no
means interfered in the contest. But the French Revolution broke out,
and a host of starving sans-culottes appeared among the various Indian
States, seeking for military service, and inflaming the minds of the
various native princes against the British East India Company. A
number of these entered into Scindiah's ranks: one of them, Perron, was
commander of his army; and though that chief was as yet quite engaged in
his hereditary quarrel with Jeswunt Row Holkar, and never thought of
an invasion of the British territory, the Company all of a sudden
discovered that Shah Allum, his sovereign, was shamefully ill-used, and
determined to re-establish the ancient splendor of his throne.

Of course it was sheer benevolence for poor Shah Allum that prompted our
governors to take these kindly measures in his favor. I don't know how
it happened that, at the end of the war, the poor Shah was not a whit
better off than at the beginning; and that though Holkar was beaten,
and Scindiah annihilated, Shah Allum was much such a puppet as before.