the undress
uniform of an officer, which he had purchased at the sale of the
effects of a young lieutenant on the general's staff, who had died
just as the army arrived before Bangalore. It was, indeed, necessary
that he should do this, riding about, as he did, either on the staff
of the general, or with the officers of the quartermasters'
department. There would be no difficulty in renewing his uniform, for
hardship, fever, and war had carried off a large number of officers,
as well as men; and the effects were always sold by auction, on the
day following the funeral.

Many hill fortresses were captured by the Mahrattis, but few offered
any resistance; as their commanders knew well that there was no chance
of their being relieved, while the men were, in most cases, delighted
at the prospect of an escape from their enforced service, and of
freedom to return to their homes. In a few of these forts, English
captives were found. Some had been there for years, their very
existence being apparently forgotten by the tyrant. Some had been
fairly treated by the Mysore governor, and where this was the case,
the latter was furnished by the British officers with papers,
testifying to the kindness with which they had treated the prisoners,
and recommending them to the officers of any of the allied forces they
might encounter on their way home, or when established there.

Upon the other hand, some of the prisoners were found to have been all
but starved, and treated with great brutality. In two cases, where the
captives said that some of their companions had died from the effects
of the ill treatment they had received, the governors were tried by
court martial and shot, while some of the others they sentenced to be
severely flogged.

Every captive released was closely scrutinised by Dick, and eagerly
questioned. From one of them, he obtained news that his father had
certainly been alive four years previously, for they had been in
prison together, in a hill fort near Bangalore.

"I was a civilian and he a sailor," he said, "consequently neither of
us were of any use in drilling Tippoo's battalions, and had been sent
up there. Your father was well, then. The governor was a good fellow,
and we had nothing much to complain of. Mr. Holland was a favourite of
his, for, being a sailor, he was handy at all sorts of things. He
could mend a piece of broken furniture, repair the lock of a musket,
and make himself generally useful. He left