ery precarious one. When Hyder Ali marched down here, eight
years ago, he swept the whole country, from the foot of the hills to
the sea coast. My father would have been glad to stand neutral, but
was, of course, bound to go with the English, as the Nabob of Arcot,
his nominal sovereign, went with them. His sympathies were, of course,
with your people; but most of the chiefs were, at heart, in favour of
Hyder. It was not that they loved him, or preferred the rule of Mysore
to that of Madras. But at that time Madras was governed by imbeciles.
Its Council was composed entirely of timid and irresolute men. It was
clear to all that, before any force capable of withstanding him could
be put in the field, the whole country, beyond reach of the guns of
the forts at Madras, would be at the mercy of Hyder.

"What that mercy was, had been shown elsewhere. Whole populations had
been either massacred, or carried off as slaves. Therefore, when the
storm was clearly about to burst, almost all of them sent secret
messages to Hyder, to assure him that their sympathies were with him,
and that they would gladly hail him as ruler of the Carnatic.

"My father was in no way inclined to take such a step. His marriage
with an English woman, the white blood in my veins, and his long-known
partiality for the English, would have marked him for certain
destruction; and, as soon as he received news that Hyder's troops were
in movement, he rode with me to Madras. At that time, his force was
comparatively large, and he took three hundred men down with us. He
had allowed all who preferred it to remain behind; and some four
hundred stayed to look after their families. Most of the population
took to the hills and, as Hyder's forces were too much occupied to
spend time in scouring the ghauts in search of fugitives, when there
was so much loot and so many captives ready to their hands on the
plains, the fugitives for the most part remained there in safety. The
palace was burnt, the town sacked and partly destroyed, and some
fifteen hundred of our people, who had remained in their homes, killed
or carried off.

"My father did some service with our horse, and I fought by his side.
We were with Colonel Baillie's force when it was destroyed, after for
two days resisting the whole of Hyder All's army. Being mounted, we
escaped, and reached Madras in safety, after losing half our number.
But all that I can tell you about, some other day.

"When peace was m