now his successful rival; but could obtain no other terms than to be allowed to steal off in the night with a few soldiers, leaving behind him nearly all his treasures, the accumulated fruit of so much crime and extortion, and even his family, among whom was his son Tippoo, then nine years old. These last, however, were received into Seringapatam, and treated with kindness.

The expelled chief sought refuge first at Anicul and then at Bangalore, places under his immediate command, and of which the governors proved faithful even in this extremity. He soon collected his forces, called in his detachments, and endeavoured, by the reputation of his name, to attract fresh adventurers to his standard. Thus in a few months he took the field against Kunde Row; but that able chief, having still a superior army, brought on a general action, in which Hyder was defeated. His affairs being thus rendered nearly desperate, he had recourse for relief to a very singular quarter. With two hundred horse he hastened during the night to the residence of Nunjeraj, presented himself in a suppliant posture, confessed his guilt and ingratitude, and intreated his former patron to resume his place, and treat him again as a servant. All historians express astonishment that the fallen minister should have been won over by protestations so manifestly insincere; but we are to consider, that by closing with this proposal he obtained perhaps the only chance of regaining his power and dignity. Upon this successful stratagem Hyder formed another still deeper. He affixed the seal of Nunjeraj to a number of letters, seeming to contain a treasonable correspondence, addressed to the principal officers in Kunde Row's army. They were sent by an emissary, who appeared to exercise the strictest vigilance lest they should fall into the hands of that chief, yet took effectual means that they should be intercepted. Kunde Row, with all his experience and profound policy, was completely deceived; and seeing himself, as he imagined, betrayed by his followers, he abruptly quitted the camp and hastened to Seringapatam. The army was thus thrown into a state of complete disorganization, when Hyder, attacking them unexpectedly, put them to a total rout, capturing guns, stores, baggage, and all the infantry, who were then incorporated with his own troops; the cavalry alone by early flight effected their escape. Kunde

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Row discovered the deceit, and soon began to rally his men, when his antagonist had recourse to another artifice. He lay for some days in apparent inactivity, as if he did not intend to follow up his victory; then suddenly, by a nightmarch, came on his opponents by surprise, and gained another signal advantage. After reducing many of the surrounding places, he approached the remaining force of 5000 or 6000 cavalry intrenched under the guns of Seringapatam. By entering into a feigned treaty he lulled anew the suspicions of his adversaries, who suffered themselves to be again completely surprised, with nearly the entire loss of their horses and baggage. All Hyder's enemies were now at his mercy; still he wished that the terms which he meant to exact should appear as if offered and pressed upon him by the vanquished rajah. He sent a message, merely soliciting that Kunde Row, his servant, should be delivered up, and the large balance due to himself from the state be liquidated; the rajah might then either continue him in his service, or allow him to seek his fortune elsewhere. He privately transmitted, however, an intimation as to what he would be pleased to accept; and accordingly, under the impulse of necessity, the rajah was at length compelled to entreat the victor to relieve him from the toil of governing Mysore, and for that purpose to draw all its revenues, except three lacks for his own use and one for Nunjeraj; to which conditions the victor, with well-feigned reluctance, submitted. The rajah and the ladies of the palace joined in earnest entreaty for mercy to Kunde Row. Hyder replied, that he would treat him like a paroquet, by which they understood a favourite or pet; but he literally and cruelly fulfilled his promise, by enclosing the unhappy man for life in an iron cage, and sending him a daily portion of rice and milk. It is needless to add, that the lack of rupees was all that Nunjeraj obtained of the promises lavished upon him at the period of the negotiation.

Hyder, having thus become the real sovereign of Mysore, applied himself to extend his sway in every direction. He made himself master of Sera, Chittledroog, and other districts properly included in that country; but whose rajahs and polygars, during the late troublous period, had rendered themselves in a great measure independent. His richest swipe however, was afforded by the conquest of Bednore, a

territory situated on the loftiest crest of the Ghauts, 5000 feet above the level of the sea, where the profuse rains nourish magnificent forests and copious harvests. Its sequestered position hitherto preserved it from invasion, and the sovereigns had applied themselves most diligently to that grandest object in India, the accumulation of treasure. On the approach of the Mysorean army, the timid inhabitants of the capital, after setting fire to the palace, fled into the adjoining woods, leaving a splendid city eight miles in circumference entirely open to plunder. Wilks estimates the booty, we suspect with much exaggeration, at twelve millions sterling; but Hyder, it is said, always owned that its capture was the main instrument of his future greatness.

But this successful career soon met with an interruption. Madoo Rao, the principal general among the Mahrattas, entered Mysore with an immense host of irregular cavalry. They covered the face of the country, and so completely cut off all communication, that even the vigilant Hyder was surprised by the appearance of their main body, when he imagined them to be still at a distance. He was defeated, and after several unsuccessful attempts, during a campaign of some length, to retrieve his affairs, was compelled to purchase peace by extensive cessions, and the payment of thirtytwo lacks of rupees. That tumultuary horde then retired, and left him at liberty to pursue his farther acquisitions. He directed his arms against Calicut, still ruled by a sovereign entitled the zamorin, and esteemed the principal maritime city of that coast. Its troops opposed him with the same desultory but harassing warfare by which they had baffled the attack of Albuquerque. The Mysorean ruler, however, forced his way through these obstacles, and approached the capital, when the zamorin, despairing of being able to prolong the resistance, came out with his ministers and endeavoured to negotiate a treaty. He was favourably received, and on his offering payment to the amount of 190,000l. sterling, the invader agreed to abstain from farther aggression. But this did not prevent him from attack ing and carrying Calicut by surprise; and, as the money was produced very slowly, he sought to hasten payment by placing the sovereign and his nobles under close confine ment, and even by applying torture to the latter. The prince, dreading that he would be exposed to a similar in

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dignity, shut and barricaded the doors of the house in which he was confined, set fire to it, and before the flames could be extinguished, he had perished. Several of his attendants are said to have thrown themselves into the burning mansion, and suffered the same fate. A conquest achieved by such deeds of violence soon excited a fierce rebellion, which was suppressed only by severe executions, and by the transportation of a great number of the people to a remote quarter of the Mysorean dominions.

These rapid successes, and the additional resources derived from them, alarmed the great powers of Southern India, Nizam Ali, Subahdar of the Deccan, and Madoo Rao, the Mahratta commander, united in a confederacy to crush the assailant; and the English agreed to place an auxiliary force at the disposal of the former, with the vague commission "to settle the affairs of his government in every thing that is right and proper." It was distinctly understood that they were to co-operate in the invasion of Mysore; and Colonel Smith proceeded to Hydrabad to arrange measures for that purpose. This seems to have been a very doubtful policy, when the Mahrattas alone were fully equal to contend with Hyder; so that the two parties might have been advantageously left to weaken each other by mutual warfare; whereas the aggrandizement of one by the downfall of the other tended directly to overthrow the balance of power.

The three allied armies began to move early in 1767, but in a straggling and ill-combined manner. A month before the two others Madoo Rao had covered with clouds of cavalry the high plains of Mysore. His force alone was more than Hyder dared to encounter in the field. The latter endeavoured to pursue a desultory mode of defence, causing the grain to be buried, the wells to be poisoned, the forage to be consumed, and the cattle to be driven away. Every expedient proved unavailing to stop the progress of these rapid and skilful marauders; their horses fed on the roots of grass; by thrusting iron rods into the earth they discov ered from the sound, the resistance, and even from the smell, the places where grain was deposited; while the cattle, to whatever spot they could be removed, were traced out and seized. The Mysorean leader, finding them already in the heart of his dominions, where he had no means of arresting

their progress, determined at any price to detach them from the confederacy. Apajee Ram, a Bramin, was sent, and opened a negotiation in a style much differing from European diplomacy. He was received in full durbar by the Mahratta general, who declared his determination not to treat with an opponent who held his legitimate prince in such unworthy captivity; and a murmur of approbation ran through the assembly. The envoy humbly confessed the charge, only adding, that his master, whenever an opposite example was set by his betters, would immediately follow it. Every one now recollected that Madoo Rao held the descendant of Sevajee in exactly the same thraldom as the Mysorean rajah was kept by Hyder; the approving sound was changed into suppressed laughter; the Mahratta chief hung down his head; and a serious negotiation was immediately commenced. He consented, on the payment of thirty-five lacks of rupees, to quit the country and with draw entirely from the grand alliance. He had gained his end; and when Colonel Tod was sent to urge him to fulfil his engagements, the whole court laughed in that officer's face.

Colonel Smith, meantime, supported only by the poor, ill-paid, and undisciplined troops of the nizam, had entered Mysore. He soon began to suspect that this would prove a very futile expedition; and it was in fact about to assume a character much more disastrous than he anticipated. His Indian ally had taken umbrage on various grounds at the English presidency. They had procured from the Mogul, now a merely nominal potentate, the grant of the valuable territory of the Northern Circars. Mohammed Ali, their ally, whom they had raised to be nabob of the Carnatic, had meantime advanced pretensions to the dominions and rank of the nizam, which the latter suspected the British of secretly favouring. Hyder therefore employed Maphuz Khan, brother to that chief, who, actuated by the fraternal jealousies usually prevalent in India, had come over to the Mysorean interest, to open a secret correspondence with the nizam. This last was easily persuaded that he should most successfully realize his views of aggrandizement by entering into a league with Hyder against Mohammed and that foreign power, of which he was rendering himself the instrument; and accordingly these two parties, who were