ntry, and thirty
guns; the remains of the great army with which he had crossed the
river, confident of victory, the year before.

On the following day Lord Lake, who had received considerable
reinforcements, again moved his camp to the southeast of the city,
and prepared to resume active operations against it. The rajah had,
for some time, been in a despondent state and, the next morning, he
came alone to Harry's room.

"I want to have a talk with you," he said; and Abdool, seeing that
the conversation was to be a private one, at once left the room.

"My friend," he said, "I have, for some time, felt that my cause
was becoming hopeless. I have never supposed that, after failing
four times, and each with heavy loss, your people would continue
the siege. But I see now that I was wrong. We might repulse another
attack, and another; but of what use would it be? Your people would
only become stronger, after each defeat.

"I see now that I have acted as one bereft of sense. I had no
quarrel with the Company. They added to my territory, they had
promised to defend me against all attacks but, when I heard that
Holkar was approaching with so vast an army, I thought that surely
he would recapture Delhi, and drive you out of Agra, and perhaps
down to Calcutta; or that, after taking Agra, he would turn against
me. And so, foolish man that I was, I joined him.

"And now I would fain make peace, and I pray you to go to your
general, and ask what terms he will grant. They may be hard, but I
am in no position to stand out. Ameer Khan has been chased and
routed, Holkar is little better than a fugitive, and owns only his
horse and saddle. There is no one to whom I can look for aid. I put
myself in the English general's hands."

"I will willingly go, Rajah. No doubt it has been supposed, for
weeks, that I and my escort have perished. And when the general
hears of the kind treatment that we have received--a treatment so
different from that we should have met with, had we fallen into the
hands of Holkar--it will, I feel certain, have an effect on the
terms that he will lay down."

Harry had, each day, paid a visit to the troopers, who were
confined in a large airy room opening into the courtyard. They had
been well fed, and had been permitted to go out into the open air,
for several hours a day, and to mingle freely with the Jat
soldiers. Half an hour after his interview with the rajah Harry
went down there. To his surprise, he fo