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thrust out into the street. Deoraj, indignant at this cruelty, abandoned his interests, and went to reside in a different quarter of the country.

Nunjeraj himself was soon exposed to an exigency to which an Indian prince is almost always liable. His troops began to clamour for a large amount of arrears, and, obtaining no satisfaction, proceeded to the expedient of seating themselves in dherna at his gate. According to this institution, which in India is held sacred, he could neither taste food nor drink while the claimants remained in this position; and the soldiers, occupying the entrance of the palace, took care that this rule should be strictly observed. In this extremity Hyder gladly took occasion to interpose his services. He repaired to Seringapatam, and by seizing all public property within his reach, as well as judiciously collecting the sums due to government, obtained as much money as satisfied the immediate claims of the military. He had also effected an accommodation between the two brothers, which Deoraj, however, did not long survive. Thus Hyder became extremely popular, appearing as a general friend to all parties. Having raised a large force of his own, and attached to his views the army of Nunjeraj by his exertions for their relief, he soon felt himself to be the real master. His influence was greatly increased by the occurrence of a formidable invasion on the part of the Mahrattas, when, being appointed to the chief command, he brought the contest to an issue, not triumphant indeed, but much more favourable than had been anticipated. He now determined to make his way to the supreme power on the ruin of that chief through whose kindness he had risen to his present elevation. Kunde Row, who had all along been his agent and partisan, opened through the medium of a dowager-princess, a woman of talent, a negotiation with the rajah, who, with the view of being enabled to resume the real authority in his own kingdom, agreed to concur in the removal of Nunjeraj. Circumstances favoured their designs. A fresh arrear of pay having accumulated, the troops again established themselves in dherna before his gate; when Hyder, instead of studying as before to appease their discontent and relieve his patron's distress, sought only to foment the one and aggravate the other. Nay, with a semblance of grief and reluctance, he con

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curred with them in assuming the position of dherna. Nunjeraj, thus pressed, at length agreed to retire with a liberal allowance of treasure and troops, and leave the field open for his rival. The rajah having assumed the government, intrusting the whole administration, civil and military, to Hyder and Kunde Row. It was not likely that the deposed viceroy should remain long satisfied with his altered condition. Retiring to the city of Mysore, only nine miles distant from the capital, he recruited his forces with the utmost diligence. A demand was hereupon made, that he should discharge his troops, remove to a greater distance, and be content with a fixed allowance for his private expenses. He indignantly wrote in answer to Hyder:-" I have made you what you are, and now you refuse me a place in which to hide my head. Do what you please, or what you can. I move not from Mysore." The new minister immediately proceeded to besiege that city, which, after an obstinate resistance, surrendered; and Nunjeraj was obliged to accept the hard conditions imposed by the victor.

Hyder seemed now at the height of power; yet he was soon after involved in the most serious peril he had ever encountered. The rajah and the dowager were not long in discovering what indeed they could scarcely fail to foresee, that by this change of affairs they had merely substituted one sovereign minister for another, and were as destitute as ever of any real power. They gained over Kunde Row, who then watched in conjunction with them the opportunity of striking a blow against the man of whom he had been so long the devoted adherent. It occurred sooner than might have been expected with one so vigilant and so versant in all the intricacies of treason. Hyder, suspecting nothing, had dispersed his forces in different directions, and lay encamped with a handful of troops under the walls of Seringapatam. Suddenly, with amazement and consternation, he saw his batteries begin to play upon him; he called for Kunde Row, his resource in every difficulty, but that person was seen on the ramparts directing the operations of the artillery. Hyder, perceiving the snare into which he had fallen, summoned all his presence of mind in this desperate extremity. Having placed his men under the best shelter that could be obtained, he transmitted the most humble overtures and supplications to his former servant,

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 fotal 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 prize, 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 nour ish 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 attacking 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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