d his regiment.

Surajah had wanted to accompany him to Madras, and to enlist in any
regiment to which he might be appointed; and the assurance that it
might be a long time before he became a native officer, as these were
always chosen from the ranks, except in the case of raising new
regiments, had little influence with him. The Rajah, however, had
finally persuaded him to stay, by the argument that his father, who
was now getting on in years, would sorely miss him; that the captain
of the troop would also be retiring shortly; and that he should, as a
reward for his faithful services to his nephew, appoint him to the
command as soon as it was vacant. Ibrahim entered the Rajah's service,
preferring that to soldiering.

Chapter 21: Home.

It was early in December, 1792, that Dick Holland joined his regiment,
which was stationed at Madras. There were but five other officers, and
Dick found, to his satisfaction, that the junior of them had had four
years' service. Consequently, he did not step over any one's head,
owing to his commission being dated nearly three years previously. As
there were, in the garrison, many officers who had served on the
general staff in the last war, Dick soon found some of his former
acquaintances, and the story of his long search for his father, and
its successful termination, soon spread, and gained for him a place in
civil as well as military society.

The next year passed peacefully, and was an unusually quiet time in
India. That Tippoo intended to renew the war, as soon as he was able,
was well known to the government, and one of its chief objects of
solicitude was the endeavour to counteract the secret negotiations
that were constantly going on between him, the Nizam, and the
Mahrattis.

Tippoo was known to have sent confidential messengers to all the great
princes of India--even to the ruler of Afghanistan--inviting them to
join the confederacy of the Mahrattis, the Nizam, and himself, to
drive the English out of India altogether. Still greater cause for
uneasiness was the alliance that Tippoo had endeavoured to make with
the French, who, as he had learned, had gained great successes in
Europe; and, believing from their account that their country was much
stronger than England, he had sent envoys to the Mauritius, to propose
an offensive and defensive alliance against England. The envoys had
been politely received, and some of them had proceeded to France,
where Tippoo's prop