ull-grown, two years before, and, in the hands of a skilful man, was
fit for the chase in six months. It was a very beautiful animal, but,
for the sake of the sport, kept wretchedly thin.[5] He seemed
especially indifferent to the crowd and the music, but could not bear
to see the woman whirling about in the dance with her red mantle
floating in the breeze; and, whenever his head was turned towards
her, he cropped his ears. She at last, in play, swept close by him,
and with open mouth he attempted to spring upon her, but was pulled
back by the keeper. She gave a shriek, and nearly fell upon her back
in fright.

The Raja is a man of no parts or character, and, his expenditure
being beyond his income, he is killing his goose for the sake of her
eggs--that is, he is ruining all the farmers and cultivators of his
large estate by exactions, and thereby throwing immense tracts of
fine land out of tillage. He was the heir to the fortress and
territory of Garha Kota, near Sagar, which was taken by Sindhia's
army, under the command of Jean Baptiste Filose,[6] just before our
conquest in 1817. I was then with my regiment, which was commanded by
Colonel, afterwards Major-General, G------,[7] a very singular
character. When our surgeon. Dr. E------, received the newspaper
announcing the capture of Garha Kota in Central India by _Jean-
Baptiste_, an officer of the corps was with him, who called on the
colonel on his way home, and mentioned this as a bit of news. As soon
as this officer had left him, the colonel wrote off a note to the
doctor: 'My dear Doctor,--I understand that that fellow, _John the
Baptist_, has got into Sindhia's service, and now commands an army--
do send me the newspapers.' These were certainly the words of his
note, and, at the only time I heard him speak on the subject of
religion he discomfited his adversary in an argument at the mess by
'Why, sir, you do not suppose that I believe in those fellows,
Luther, Calvin, and John the Baptist, do you?'

Nothing could stand this argument. All the party burst into a laugh,
which the old gentleman took for an unequivocal recognition of his
victory, and his adversary was silenced. He was an old man when I
first became acquainted with him. I put into his hands, when in camp,
Miss Edgeworth's novels, in the hope of being able to induce him to
read by degrees; and I have frequently seen the tears stealing down
over his furrowed cheeks, as he sat pondering over her pages