later, they heard that the army of the nizam, of fifteen
thousand troops, with eight hundred French under Bussy, were marching
against them; and that the horsemen of Murari Reo were devastating the
villages near the frontier. A council of war was held. Charlie would
fain have fought in the open again, believing that his trained troops,
flushed with their recent victory, would be a match even for the army
of the nizam. But the rajah and the rest of the council, alarmed at
the presence of the French troops, who had hitherto proved invincible
against vastly superior forces of natives, shrank from such a course;
and it was decided that they should content themselves with the
defence of the town and castle.

Orders were accordingly issued that the old men, the women, and
children should at once leave the town; and, under guard of one
battalion of troops, take refuge in an almost impregnable hill fort
some miles away. One battalion was placed in garrison in the castle.
The other three, with the irregulars, took post in the town, whence
they could, if necessary, retreat into the castle.

The day following the removal of the noncombatants the enemy appeared,
coming down the valley, having marched over the hills; while the
Mahratta cavalry again poured up from below.

Charlie had taken the command of the town, as it was against this that
the efforts of the enemy would be first directed. It was an imposing
sight, as the army of the nizam wound down the valley; the great
masses of men with their gay flags, the elephants with the gold
embroidery of their trappings glistening in the sun, the bands of
horsemen careering here and there, the lines of artillery drawn by
bullocks; and, less picturesque but far more menacing, the dark body
of French infantry, who formed the nucleus and heart of the whole. The
camp was pitched just out of range of the guns of the fort, and soon
line after line of tents, gay with the flags that floated above them,
rose across the valley.

Charlie had mounted to the castle, the better to observe the movements
of the enemy, and he presently saw a small body of horsemen ride out
of the camp, and mount the hillside across the valley. A glass showed
that some of these were native officers, while others were in the dark
uniform of the French.

"I have no doubt," Charlie said to the rajah, "that is the nizam
himself, with Bussy, gone up to reconnoitre the position. I wonder how
he likes the look of it. I wis