hat was almost as
narrow a shave for his life as with the pistol.

"Lawrence now crossed with his main body and advanced. Again the
Tanjore horsemen charged; but this time we were prepared, and Lawrence
let them come on till within a few yards, and then gave them a volley
which killed fourteen and sent the rest scampering away. Lawrence
pushed forward. The garrison, panic stricken at the defeat of their
cavalry, abandoned the breach and escaped to the opposite side of the
town, and Devikota was ours.

"A few days later we captured the fortified temple of Uchipuran. A
hundred men were left there, and these were afterwards attacked by the
Rajah of Tanjore, with five thousand men; but they held their own, and
beat them off. A very gallant business, that!

"These affairs showed the rajah that the English could fight; a point
which, hitherto, the natives had been somewhat sceptical about. They
were afraid of the French, but they looked upon us as mere traders. He
had, too, other things to trouble him as to the state of the Carnatic,
and so hastened to make peace. He agreed to pay the expenses of the
war, and to cede us Devikota and some territory round it; and to allow
the wretched ex-rajah, in whose cause we had pretended to fight, a
pension of four hundred a year, on condition that we kept him shut up
in one of our forts.

"Not a very nice business on our side, was it? Still, we had gained
our point, and, with the exception of the ex-rajah, who was a bad lot
after all, no one was discontented.

"When the peace was signed, our force returned to Fort Saint David.
While they had been away, there had been a revolution in the Carnatic.
Now this was rather a complicated business; but as the whole situation
at present turns upon it; and it will, not improbably, cause our
expulsion from Southern India; I will explain it to you as well as I
can.

"Now you must know that all Southern India, with the exception of a
strip along the west coast, is governed by a viceroy, appointed by the
emperor at Delhi. He was called the Subadar of the Deccan. Up till the
end of 'forty-eight, Nizam Ul-Mulk was viceroy. About that time he
died, and the emperor appointed his grandson, Muzaffar Jung, who was
the son of a daughter of his, to succeed him. But the subadar had left
five sons. Four of these lived at Delhi, and were content to enjoy
their life there. The second son, however, Nazir Jung, was an
ambitious man, who had rebelled even again