aptive here, it has of course changed my plans, and I
feel that I could not go away and leave you to the fate you told me
of, and that if possible, I must take you away with me. That is, of
course, if you are willing to go with us, and prepared to run a
certain amount of risk.

"Do not take on so," he continued, as the girl threw herself on her
knees, and, clinging to him, burst into a passion of tears. "Do not
cry like that;" and, stooping down, he lifted her, and placed her in a
corner of the divan. "There," he said, patting her on the shoulder, as
she sobbed almost convulsively; "try and compose yourself. We may be
disturbed at any moment, and may not have an opportunity of talking
again, so we must make our arrangements, in readiness to leave
suddenly. I may find it necessary to go at an hour's notice. You may,
as you said, be given by Tippoo to one of his favourites at any time.
Fortunately he has gone away for a fortnight, so we have, at any rate,
that time before us to make our plans. Still, it is better that we
should arrange, now, as much as we can."

Chapter 15: Escape.

Annie Mansfield was not long before she mastered her emotions. She had
learned to do so in a bitter school. Beaten for the slightest fault,
or at the mere caprice of one of her many mistresses, she had learned
to suffer pain without a tear; to assume a submissive attitude under
the greatest provocation; to receive, without attempting to defend
herself, punishment for faults she had not committed; and to preserve
an appearance of cheerfulness, when her heart seemed breaking at the
hopelessness of any deliverance from her fate. For the last six months
she had been specially unhappy, for when Seringapatam had been
besieged she had hoped that, when it was captured, her countrymen
would search the Palace and see that, this time, no English captive
remained behind. Her disappointment, then, when she heard that peace
had been made, and that the English army was to march away, without
even an attempt to see that the condition for the release of captives
was faithfully carried out, had for a time completely crushed her, and
all hope had forsaken her.

Thus, then, while she had been, for a moment, overwhelmed at finding
that her preserver from the tiger was a countryman in disguise, and
that he was willing to make an attempt to rescue her; yet in a few
minutes she stifled her sobs, hastily thrust back the hair that had
fallen over her face, u