t
that, according to our religion, the suicide is accursed; and,
moreover, I would fain live to see the vengeance that must some day
fall upon the tyrant.

"After what I have said, it is for you to decide whether you think I
can be trusted with your secret, for I am sure it is for no slight
reason that you have come to this accursed city."

Dick felt that he could safely speak, and that he would find in this
native a very valuable ally. He therefore told his story without
concealment. Except that an exclamation of surprise broke from his
lips, when Dick said that he was English, the old man listened without
a remark until he had finished.

"Your tale is indeed a strange one," he said, when he had heard the
story. "I had looked for something out of the ordinary, but assuredly
for nothing so strange as this. Truly you English are a wonderful
people. It is marvellous that one should come, all the way from beyond
the black water, to seek for a father lost so many years ago. Methinks
that a blessing will surely alight upon such filial piety, and that
you will find your father yet alive.

"Were it not for that, I should deem your search a useless one.
Thousands of Englishmen have been massacred during the last ten years.
Hundreds have died of disease and suffering. Many have been poisoned.
Many officers have also been murdered, some of them here, but more in
the hill forts; for it was there they were generally sent, when their
deaths were determined upon.

"Still, he may live. There are men who have been here as many years,
and who yet survive."

"Then this is where the main body of the prisoners were kept?" Dick
asked.

"Yes. All were brought here, native and English. Tens of thousands of
boys and youths, swept up by Tippoo's armies from the Malabar coast
and the Carnatic, were brought up here and formed into battalions, and
these English prisoners were forced to drill them. It was but a poor
drill. I have seen them drilling their recruits at Conjeveram, and the
difference between the quick sharp order there, and the listless
command here, was great indeed. Consequently, the Englishmen were
punished by being heavily ironed, and kept at starvation point for the
slackness with which they obeyed the tyrant's orders. Sometimes they
were set to sweep the streets, sometimes they were beaten till they
well nigh expired under the lash. Often would they have died of
hunger, were it not that Tippoo's own troops took pity on