d on the dilapidated
landing-stage at Naoghat, and waved farewell to his travelling
companions, after receiving Nisbet's urgent directions to send on at
once any despatches that might arrive while he remained there, and
Cowper's parting request to give his compliments to the old Habshi.
This disrespectful term applied to Nawab Sadiq Ali, who traced his
descent to a famous naval commander, a Habshi or Abyssinian, in the
service of one of the Mogul Emperors. So much did the Badshah
appreciate the society of his admiral that he grudged him to the sea,
but compromised matters by bestowing on him a _jaghir_ with a river
frontage, which the Habshi's descendants, in the break-up of the
empire, contrived to erect into the independent state of Habshiabad.
Sadiq Ali was proud to reckon himself an old ally of the British, his
father having stood fast by them during the Mahratta troubles of the
early years of the nineteenth century, and a hostility equally ancient
existed between him and his Granthi neighbours across the Bari, more
especially those in Agpur. Partab Singh and he had enjoyed many a
sharp tussle before they relapsed into reluctant peace, owing to the
fact that their forces were so nearly matched as to render it useless
for either to attack the other, and to the absence of border fighting
during late years the Kawab attributed the deterioration observable in
the spirit of his subjects. A kind of dry-rot appeared to have set in,
under the influence of which the state was suffering, not only in
military, but also in civil matters, and this had culminated in a
regrettable incident which had only recently occurred.

When the Granthi War broke out, Sadiq Ali, equally unexpected and
undesired, hastened to join the banners of the Commander-in-Chief with
his horde of undisciplined followers, never doubting that he would be
received with the delight such an accession of strength would have
caused forty years before. But the military affairs of British India
were differently organised nowadays, and native princes as allies were
regarded with disappointing indifference, so that the bad condition of
the Nawab's troops, rather than the good feeling he had displayed,
attracted attention. When at a critical moment the advance of a
British brigade was delayed by the Habshiabadis' plundering in its
front, the Commander-in-Chief, who had learnt his soldiering in the
Peninsula, lost his temper and swore at Sadiq Ali--who understood