bel princes and leaders
who were fleeing with their treasures and loot to Burmah. But the
treacherous scoundrel seized the money and valuables and handed the
owners over to the Government of India.

The present occupant of the _gadi_--which is the Hindustani equivalent of a
throne--was far from being an improvement on his predecessors. He exceeded
them in viciousness, though much their inferior in ability. As a rule the
Indian reigning princes of today--and especially those educated at the
splendid Rajkumar College, or Princes' School--are an honour to their high
lineage and the races from which they spring. In peace they devote
themselves to the welfare of their subjects, and in war many of them have
fought gallantly for the Empire and all have given their treasures or their
troops loyally and generously to their King-Emperor.

The Rajah of Lalpuri was an exception--and a bad one. Although not thirty
years of age he had plumbed the lowest depths of vice and debauchery.
Cruelty and treachery were his most marked characteristics, lust and liquor
his ruling passions.

Of Mahratta descent he was of course a Hindu. While in drunken moments
professing himself an atheist and blaspheming the gods, yet when
suffering from illness caused by his excesses he was a prey to
superstitious fears and as wax in the hands of his Brahmin priests.
Although his territory was small and unimportant, yet the ownership of
a Bengal coalfield and the judicious investment by his father of the
treasure stolen from the rebel princes in profitable Western enterprises
ensured him an income greater than that enjoyed by many far more
important maharajahs. But his revenue was never sufficient for his
needs, and he ground down his wretched subjects with oppressive taxes
to furnish him with still more money to waste in his vices. All men
marvelled that the Government of India allowed such a debauchee and
wastrel to remain on the _gadi_. But it is a long-suffering Government
and loth to interfere with the rulers of the native states. However,
matters were fast reaching a crisis when the Viceroy and his advisers
would be forced to consider whether they should allow this degenerate to
continue to misgovern his State. This the Rajah realised, and it filled
him with feelings of hostility and disloyalty to the Suzerain Power.

But the real ruler of Lalpuri State was the _Dewan_ or Prime Minister, a
clever, ambitious, and unscrupulous Bengali Brahmin, endowed