nt where the
valley opened out into a plain, some two miles wide. He had no doubt
whatever that the rajah's troops would be able to inflict a crushing
defeat upon the invaders, who would be so disheartened, thereby, that
they would be little likely to renew the attack.

Two bodies of troops, each three hundred strong, were sent down to the
gorge, with orders to remain in hiding among the heights, to allow the
invading army to pass unmolested, and then to inflict the greatest
possible loss upon them, as they returned. These were under the
command of another of Charlie's lieutenants, who received orders from
him to erect breastworks of rock on the slopes above the entrance to
the gorge, after the enemy had passed on; and to line these with a
portion of his men, who should pour a heavy fire into the enemy as
they came down the valley; while the rest were to line the heights
above the gorge, and to roll down rocks upon those who passed through
the fire of their comrades.

The uniforms were served out to the soldiers, and Charlie surveyed,
with pride, the five battalions of trained troops which, with twelve
guns, marched down into the valley and took up their post beyond it,
at a point which he had carefully chosen, where the guns of the castle
would be able to play upon an advancing body of troops. A body of
trained artillerymen were told off for this service, and the
last-raised levies were posted in the castle and on the walls of the
town.

The position was so chosen that the flanks of the line rested on the
slopes on either side. These were broken by inclosures and gardens;
into which, on either side, half a battalion was thrown forward, so as
to deliver a flanking fire upon an enemy advancing against the centre.
Across the valley, two hundred yards in front of the position, the
stream which watered it made a sharp turn, running for some distance
directly across it, and several small canals for the irrigation of the
fields rendered the ground wet and swampy. Across the line occupied by
his troops, a breastwork had been thrown up, and in front of this rows
of sharp-pointed stakes had been stuck in the ground. Altogether, the
position was a formidable one.

An hour or two after the position so carefully prepared had been taken
up, large bodies of Mahratta horse were seen dashing up the valley,
and smoke rising from several points showed that they had begun their
usual work, of plundering and destroying the villages on