ishwa imitated him. Before that, we had India
at our mercy. What power could withstand a hundred thousand
horsemen, here today, there tomorrow? Then, we had it in our power
to waste all the country, and to starve out the fortresses from
Cuttack to the north. Our territory extended from the great
mountains on the east, to the sea in the west.

"Now we can only move at the pace of footmen; and while, formerly,
no infantry would venture to withstand our charge; now, as you see,
a handful of Sepoys set us at defiance, repulsed our charges, and
gained Agra simply because our guns and infantry could not arrive
to help us."

"There can be no doubt that you are right," Harry agreed; "but I
cannot blame Scindia and Holkar for forming regiments of infantry,
trained by foreign officers. They had seen how the regiments so
raised, by the English, had won great victories in the Carnatic and
Bengal; and they did not think at that time that, ere long, they
might become formidable to the Mahrattas. Scindia and Holkar raised
their regiments, not to fight against the strangers, but against
each other. It was their mutual hostility that so diminished the
strength of the Mahrattas. When dogs fight dogs, the wild boar
ravages the land."

"It is true enough," the other said. "As a nation we might have
ruled Asia but, divided among ourselves, wasting our forces against
each other, we have allowed the stranger to wrest province after
province from us.

"Now, I will go out and see that the men have all got quarters, and
that the people of the village are feeding them, as they should. In
truth, we have been having a bad time, lately."

"Yes, indeed; I thought myself lucky, sometimes, to get a handful
of grain after twenty hours in the saddle.

"It cannot be helped, comrade. We must drive the strangers back
towards Allahabad; recover Benares, Agra, and Delhi; and then we
shall be able to rest in peace, for a time, before we settle
accounts with Scindia, and the others who have made a disgraceful
peace with the English. We shall never have peace in the Deccan
till we sack and destroy Bombay, and force the last Englishman to
take to his ships."

Harry started with Abdool before daybreak the next morning and,
riding all day, reached Delhi late in the evening. Putting up the
horses, he proceeded to the house occupied by Colonel Ochterlony,
the Resident.

"Will you tell the colonel," he said, "that I am an officer with
despatches from Gene