the fort, and one of the sentinels
came running to me, saying that a Mahratta soldier was before the gate
with a flag of truce!

"I went down, rightly conjecturing, as it turned out, that the party,
whoever they might be, had no artillery; and received at the point of my
sword a scroll, of which the following is a translation:--

"'TO GOLIAH GAHAGAN GUJPUTI.

"'LORD OF ELEPHANTS, SIR,--I have the honor to inform you that I arrived
before this place at eight o'clock P.M. with ten thousand cavalry under
my orders. I have burned, since my arrival, seventeen bungalows in
Furruckabad and Futtyghur, and have likewise been under the painful
necessity of putting to death three clergymen (mollahs), and seven
English officers, whom I found in the village; the women have been
transferred to safe keeping in the harems of my officers and myself.

"'As I know your courage and talents, I shall be very happy if you
will surrender the fortress, and take service as a major-general
(hookahbadar) in my army. Should my proposal not meet with your assent,
I beg leave to state that to-morrow I shall storm the fort, and on
taking it, shall put to death every male in the garrison, and every
female above twenty years of age. For yourself I shall reserve a
punishment, which for novelty and exquisite torture has, I flatter
myself, hardly ever been exceeded. Awaiting the favor of a reply, I am,
Sir,

"'Your very obedient servant,

"'JESWUNT ROW HOLKAR.

"'CAMP BEFORE FUTTYGHUR, Sept. 1, 1804.

"'R. S. V. P.'

"The officer who had brought this precious epistle (it is astonishing
how Holkar had aped the forms of English correspondence), an enormous
Pitan soldier, with a shirt of mail, and a steel cap and cape, round
which his turban wound, was leaning against the gate on his matchlock,
and whistling a national melody. I read the letter, and saw at once
there was no time to be lost. That man, thought I, must never go back to
Holkar. Were he to attack us now before we were prepared, the fort would
be his in half an hour.

"Tying my white pocket-handkerchief to a stick, I flung open the gate
and advanced to the officer; he was standing, I said, on the little
bridge across the moat. I made him a low salaam, after the fashion of
the country, and, as he bent forward to return the compliment, I am
sorry to say, I plunged forward, gave him a violent blow on the head,
which deprived him of all sensation, and then dragged him within the
wall