who was unprepared for the sudden movement that had brought the enemy so soon to the walls of his capital, and was fully impressed with the conviction that it must inevitably fall, called his chief officers around him, and asked them what they had resolved to do in this emergency. "To die with

!" was the unanimous reply of these brave men, who were destined to A their promise to the very letter; for there were few who survived the eadful day that witnessed the fall of their sovereign.

The town was closely besieged for the space of one month, when on the 4th of May, 1799, the final attack was made that completed the conquest of Mysore, and terminated the career of Tippoo Saib. General Baird, who conducted the assault, had, during the former war with the sultan, suffered a long imprisonment in the gloomy dungeons of the Sri Ranga, the walls of which he now mounted as a conqueror. Tippoo fell in the thickest of the fight, wounded by three musket-balls. His sabre was still grasped in his hands, when a soldier attempted to take off his richly-embroidered swordbelt, on which the dying sultan made an effort to lift the weapon he held, and wounded the soldier, who instantly shot him through the head, not knowing who he was; and it was not till some hours afterward that his body was found and recognised.

In the meantime, strict search had been made for him in the palace, where his two elder sons were found in a private apartment, seated on a carpet, surrounded by numerous attendants. They were not then aware of the death of their father, and were with some difficulty persuaded to order that the gates of the palace should be thrown open to the victors, who, they were told, would otherwise take the building by force. The unfortunate princes were then led forth as captives, yet with the respectful sympathy which their exalted rank and recent misfortunes excited, and were conducted into the presence of General Baird, who endeavored, by the kindest assurances, to relieve them from at least the dread of personal danger.

Thus terminated a dynasty which, though short and limited in respect of territorial dominions, was the most vigorous and best organized of any that had sprung out of the wreck of the Mogul empire. It arose, indeed, from the distracted state of India, and rested almost entirely on the personal character of its two rulers, the qualities of whose minds, though striking, were dissimilar. While Hyder Ali entered on his career unable to read or write, and remained always a stranger to these primary elements of human knowledge, Tippoo, amid the most active career of government, retained the habits and character of a man of letters. He read and wrote almost incessantly, carried on an extensive correspondence, and became the historian of his own exploits. Yet the adoption of hasty and superficial theories, in preference to the practical good sense which had guided his predecessor, led him often into crude and rash innovations, which were followed by disastrous consequences. The absolute indifference with which the subject of religion was viewed by Hyder, though marking a degraded state of moral

feeling, induced him, in his administration, to adopt the wise measure of general toleration. Tippoo's mind, on the contrary, was occupied and almost engrossed by his Mussulman zeal, which became the chief source of his crimes and follies. He fancied himself a sort of militant apostle, who was to spread his faith over the world. Combining this design with his projects of ambition, he waged sacred wars on every side-against the Nazarene English, against the Bramin Mahrattas, against the pagan and licentious nayrs. Ultimately, as we have seen, he sank into the most childish superstition, calling upon not only the Mohammedans, but the persecuted Hindus, to practise their arts of divination. After the capture of Seringapatam, when his repositories were searched, along with treaties, state-papers, and political correspondence, there was found a record of his dreams and their interpretation, of which Colonel Beatson preserved some curious specimens. For instance: once, when he was threatened with an invasion of the Mahrattas, he dreamed that a young man came up and accosted him, who in the course of conversation proved to be a female. Hence he sagely inferred that his enemy, who at first had a manly and formidable appearance, would in battle prove no better than women. These lucubrations form a strange contrast to his display of talent on other occasions. Nor can it be wondered at, that public measures resting upon conclusions like that cited above should not always have proved very prosperous.

The body of the sultan was carried to the palace, and the next day was buried with military pomp in the magnificent sepulchre of the Lall Bang, erected by Hyder Ali on the island of Seringapatam.

CHAPTER XXII.

BRITISH GOVERNMENT IN INDIA.

THE fall of Tippoo Saib placed a large kingdom at the disposal of the governor-general, the marquis Wellesley, who took in full sovereignty, for the East India Company, the coast of Canara, the district of Coimbetoor, the passes of the Ghauts, and Seringapatam; thus securing the whole seacoast of southern India, with a free communication across the country. A large tract was assigned to the nizam adjoining his dominions, and a portion of the conquered states was offered to the peishwa, on condition that he should allow British troops to be stationed within his territories; but as these terms were rejected, the proffered share was withheld, until circumstances induced Bajee Rao to consent to an arrangement by which his independence was virtually lost.

When the governor-general had taken possession of all he thought fit to appropriate, it was resolved to form what remained into a native kingdom, and restore the family of the former rajas, whose representative was a child not more than six years of age, who was taken to Mysore, and there installed with as much ceremony as the ruined state of the place would allow; for as as it was intended to make Seringapatam a British military station, the ancient capital was fixed on as the future seat of government, and the rebuilding of the fort and city, which, as before stated, had been destroyed by Tippoo, was immediately commenced.

The new town of Mysore is much handsomer than that of Seringapatam. It stands on an eminence, and is surrounded by a wall of earth. The streets are regular, and the white houses are interspersed with trees and temples. The fort contains the palace, with the houses of the principal merchants and bankers. A British resident was appointed at the court, for whom a good house was erected on a rising ground near the town; and in this officer was vested the actual government of the state, for the raja was, in reality, a mere dependent of the British rulers in India.

The princes, and other members of the family of the late sultan, were removed to Vellore, a town and fort of considerable extent about eighty miles from Madras, where they were maintained in a style befitting their rank, but were not allowed to go beyond the fortress, which was strongly garrisoned with Europeans and sepoys. Tippoo had been very popular among the military chiefs of Mysore; therefore, it is not surprising that some attempts should have been made to restore his family to the throne. In the year 1806, a formidable mutiny broke out among the native troops at Vellore, when all the Europeans of the garrison were barbarously massacred. More

than six hundred of the insurgents were made prisoners, some of whom were shot, others sent to penal settlements, and the rest gradually set at liberty; but this rebellion caused the removal of Tippoo's sons to Calcutta, as there was great reason to believe that, if they had not been personally concerned in it, the ultimate object of the outbreak was that of effecting a revolution in their favor, and of placing the eldest prince on the throne.

About the time of the conquest of Mysore, the nabob of Surat, who, like many other princes, had established his independence, in consequence of the fall of the Mogul empire, died; and his successor, whose title was disputed, purchased the support of the English, by surrendering to them the administration of his dominions, both civil and military, in return for which, he received the empty name of sovereign, with a pension for his maintenance. It was under similar circumstances that Tanjore was added, at the same period, to the British dominions, and its raja to the list of royal pensioners.

The attention of the British government was now directed toward acquiring an ascendency over the Mahrattas, the only rival power remaining in India. It may be remembered that, when the sovereign authority was first assumed by the Bramin minister, under the title of peiswha, he bestowed grants of land on many of the chiefs, and that the greatest of these were Sindia and Holkar, between whom the whole province of Malwa was divided. For some time, these chiefs were equal in power; but Sindia, by degrees, obtained a decided superiority, which he preserved until the rise of a chief of the house of Holkar, named Jeswunt Rao, an adventurous leader, who proved a formidable rival to Doulat Rao Sindia, whose villages he frequently plundered in the course of his predatory excursions. Sindia and the peishwa united their forces to check the inroads of the daring chieftain, and a desperate battle was fought near Poona, in the month of October, 1802, when Holkar gained a complete victory, and the peishwa fled, first to the fort of Singurh, and then to Bassein, leaving the city in the hands of the

conqueror.

It was in consequence of this event that Bajee Rao was induced to conclude the famous treaty of Bassein, by which he deprived himself of all pretensions to the rank of an independent prince, and gave to the English a decided supremacy in the Mahratta states. A large British force was to be permanently stationed at Poona, and maintained there by the revenues of certain districts ceded for that purpose; and the peishwa, moreover, bound himself not to engage in hostilities with other states, or to negotiate with any other power, without the consent of the British government; and on these conditions he was restored, by the aid of a British army, to his throne.

The dissatisfaction felt by many of the Mahratta chiefs, but more especially by Sindia, at the influence thus obtained by the British nation in the government of the country, led to the war which transferred what may be

termed the empire of India, from the Mahrattas to the English, who became masters of Delhi, and took once more under their protection the now aged. and powerless prince who still bore the title of emperor. The British commander, General Sir Arthur Wellesley, had vainly endeavored to come to an amicable arrangement with Sindia, but the hostile feelings of that chief were so manifest, that a declaration of war was inevitable; and two armies were at once employed against him; one in the north, under the command of General Lake; and the other in the south, under General Sir Arthur Wellesley, who gained a complete victory over the Mahrattas, commanded by Sindia in person, on the plains of Assaye, in the month of September, 1803. General Lake was equally successful in the north; and, a few days before the battle of Assaye, had taken possession of Delhi, after defeating the enemy within sight of its walls.

The people of Delhi regarded this event as a deliverance rather than a misfortune, as the government of Sindia had by no means been popular. The British general, on entering the once splendid capital of the Moguls, requested an audience of the emperor, Shah Alum, who received him under a torn and faded canopy, the miserable remnant of former state. The countenance of the aged and sightless monarch was impressed with a deep and settled melancholy, and his whole appearance bore evident tokens of neglect ; therefore, he had reason to rejoice in a victory, which, though it only restored him to a semblance of power, yet rescued him from the control of those by whom he had been despised and ill-treated, and who had allowed him but a very scanty portion of those comforts by which the infirmities of old age may be alleviated. His condition was now materially improved. He was again surrounded with the semblance of a court; he was treated with the respect due to majesty; the government was conducted in his name; and the form observed, of obtaining his sanction for every measure adopted by the new rulers.

The conquest of Delhi was followed by that of Agra; soon after which, a