they had toiled for years, the golden fruit of many a lucky speculation, the prize of many a bold adventure, had been snatched from them in a single night. Nothing could be more complete than the ruin of the English in Bengal at this juncture; and he must have been a bold visionary who could dream we should ever regain our footing there. Happily for us, there was ONE such daring dreamer; but not amongst the fever-stricken, despairing fugitives of Fulta.

Here we remained for five long dreary months, during which I had some occupation in assisting my patron to draw up a full and particular account of the defence and surrender of Fort William, together with the intrigues that preceded the Soubah's attack. This paper proved of great value to him afterwards when anonymous slanderers, aided by the malice of a faction, would have stigmatised him as the chief cause of our troubles in the June last past.

This dismal interval gave me but too much leisure in which to brood over my private troubles, and above all to consider that strange piece of information which Philip Hay had volunteered in the BlackHole Prison. Whether that faithful-unfaithful companion of mine had outlived the 20th of June I knew not; but he had not yet appeared at Fulta, where most of the survivors had found their way after receiving some kindness from Omichund, who was now high in the favour of Suraja Doulah, and who, in spite of his wrongs, had shown this much charity to the English.

"I have little doubt the wily old Gentoo betrayed us, Bob," said Mr. Holwell; "but when he moved the hidden spring of the machine that crushed us, he knew not how deadly an instrument he was setting in motion. The ruin he intended for us has ingulfed his own treasures, and he has suffered alike in his affections and his pocket. But so long as he refills the last, I fancy he can bring himself to endure the wounds inflicted on the first. They say he is in a fair way to get his money restored to him by the Soubah, and he seems to take the annihilation of his family with exemplary fortitude."

"Yet the Hindoos are an affectionate race, sir."

"True, Bob; but the man who gives his soul to the worship of lucre has no room for any other affection. Remember the inspired dictum: Thou canst not serve God and Mammon.' And when Shylock has to choose between his daughter and his money-bags, be sure he will take the latter."

"I hope the English will not be so weak as to trust Omichund again, sir," I said.

"Trust him? No, Robert; but if we want his services we shall buy them. The man will sell Suraja Doulah to us, as he sold us to Suraja Doulah, if we can pay him his price. We English traders. have never been over-particular in the choice of our tools. We should be more than human did we not sometimes take a lesson in political manoeuvring from these unscrupulous Moors."

At Fulta I frequently saw the gentle Indian maiden whom it had been my good fortune to rescue from a violent end. The simple creature regarded me with so warm a gratitude as to shame my small and accidental service; but when I suggested some plan for conveying her back to her grandfather, she shrank affrighted from the idea of such a return. By her association with the English, and the performance of small menial duties in good Mrs. Witherington's service, she had lost caste; and she told me in all seriousness that her grandfather would rather have known her dead with the rest than so dishonoured a survivor.

"Let me stay with the good English lady," she pleaded; "and with the dear English babies who love me. They are sick, and they need Tara."

Sure I am that a more faithful nurse never watched a sick-bed than this dear girl. I was stricken with fever myself while I stayed aboard ship, and she tended me with unwearying devotion; a care so fond and tender that, had I not been bound heart and soul by the old hopeless love, I must needs have given her my affection, and formed one of those alliances which are of such frequent occurrence.

Had I so pledged my heart and my honour, as God is my judge, I would have been true to the vows thus made, and would have scorned to repudiate a tie so holy, as I have but too often seen such ties repudiated by my countrymen.

One day during my slow recovery from the fever, some unconscious touch of tenderness in the Gentoo maiden's tone and manner awakened me to a sense of danger to her in this most innocent companionship. As her deliverer, she had been from the first inclined to regard me with a somewhat romantic feeling; and in the confusion of our wretched existence at Fulta we two had been thrown more together than we could have been under any but such exceptional circumstances. Unintentionally to win this gentle heart, and wound it, would have been a real affliction to me; so, convinced that in such matters candour is ever wiser than diplomacy, I made some excuse for relating the story of my youth, and told Tara how I had loved, and how I had lost all dear to me in the home I had left so far away.

The passionate sorrow with which she heard the conclusion of my story showed me that my fancy had been no vain delusion of a coxcomb, and that plain-mannered, dark-faced Robert Ainsleigh had indeed been so unlucky as to win this tender heart. All that the affection of a brother could do to alleviate a grief which I was bound to respect, and in a manner ignore, I did; and my Indian maiden smiled as she parted from me. But from this time I carefully avoided any renewal of our familiar intercourse; and when I by and by left the wretched settlement, our parting, although affectionate, was of the briefest.

Mr. Holwell's property embarked in the Diligence Snow had all

fallen into the hands of the enemy, and he now decided upon returning to England for the restoration of his shattered health. My own savings, the yearly residue of a very modest salary, and the result of two or three happy investments, had been confiscated with the effects of my patron, and I was now penniless. Thus, though I yearned to revisit England with a passionate longing, I felt myself constrained to remain in Bengal, since I could not with a decent grace ask the favour of my passage-money from Mr. Holwell's impoverished resources.

To stay behind seemed a dismal prospect, for my patron's departure I would leave me without a friend. The fugitives of Fulta were all too much disgusted with their reverse of fortune to be capable of charity. Their sole delight consisted in quarrelling and recrimination; and until this period of my life I had no adequate notion of the pettiness to which humanity can sink when unsustained by fortitude.

"And these are Christian gentlemen!" I said to myself as I surveyed their sordid squabbles. "O for a generous heathen, a Themistocles or a Cincinnatus, to show these paltry spirits how a great mind can rise superior to calamity!"

I have since thought that my own fortitude under the loss of fortune may possibly have been attributable to the fact that I had very little to lose, and that I may have been somewhat hard on these unhappy merchants, who had lost a great deal.

In imagining that my position would be utterly hopeless after my patron's departure, I had done that worthy gentleman much wrong. He was at once too kind and conscientious to leave me friendless, and a few weeks before he was to sail in the Siren sloop announced his intentions regarding me.

"I can scarce believe that the English in Bengal are completely ruined, Bob," he began, "though they deserve no better fate. By the help of Providence and Clive, I think we may weather the storm, always provided the committees of Madras and Fulta do not wreck the ship by their absurd jealousies and squabbles for precedence. Now in the event of Clive setting us on our feet again, be sure he will do it in a grand manner. The conqueror of Arcot is of the stamp of your antique heroes, and does everything on a large scale. So in the case of success there will be chances for a daring young fellow like yourself; and it is on this account that I mean to leave you in Bengal, though I at one time thought of taking you back to England with

me."

"O sir!" I gasped, my heart beating a hundred to the minute.

"Heavens, how the boy's eyes sparkle! And you would like to go back to England, and challenge Mr. Lestrange to mortal combat, and ride off with his blood upon your coat-sleeve to woo his widow? No, Bob; I have considered your story, and do not see that a return yonder would do you any good, while I am sure you may profit by remaining here."