sense of what was due to the gracious, though unseen hand, which interposing through the medium of natural causes, thwarted his deadly purpose, to shrink from the confession of it.

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Being desperately wounded, and fearing to fall into the hands of a merciless foe, or to breathe out life in protracted torture, he sought relief from his sufferings in immediate death, and endeavoured to arm his hand against his own life: but he had not strength to execute his purpose, and attempted in vain to grasp the weapon which he meant to use as the instrument of self-destruction.

After remaining in the enemy's camp for several days, in the miserable state above described, under which many of his fellow-sufferers sunk, he was conveyed first to Arnee, and afterwards to Bangalore, a strong fort in the heart of the Mysorean kingdom. Here the mode of treatment, which with little distinction of rank or person the British officers experienced, was such as corresponded with the systematic policy of the barbarian conqueror, whose avowed object it was, to compel the victims of his cruelty to embrace a service they abhorred, as their only refuge from present evils, aggravated by the prospect of a violent death, by poison or the sword, with which they were repeatedly threatened. To use his own words: "We had looked forward to the close of our long and painful

journey, with the cheering expectation that it would procure some mitigation of our woes. But great was our disappointment, or rather our horror, on entering a wretched shed, pervious to wind and weather, the destined place of our captivity, and on beholding the miserable objects by whom it was already tenanted, our brother-officers in chains, whose meagre countenances and squalid forms revealed at once the secrets of the prison-house, and disclosed the welcome provided for its new inhabitants. Our misery indeed exceeded theirs, in proportion as our bodily pains were greater, and our wants more numerous. The party of British, whom we now joined in the prison of Bangalore, had been taken either unwounded, or so slightly hurt as to be capable of bearing a speedy removal into Hyder's territory. The wounds we had suffered were more severe, and required chirurgical aid. Some were maimed and helpless. All medicine was denied, and it was very difficult to procure it clandestinely, under the strict prohibitions of introducing it which prevailed, and the danger of punishment if detected and while our bodies were racked with pain, and enfeebled with sickness, our minds became a prey to gloom and despondency. If, in consequence of any favourable rumour, as of peace, or the success of our arms, a ray of hope entered our dismal abode, it was soon dispelled by reports of a contrary nature, and thus conspired, with every thing else, to confirm and

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aggravate our despair. We were sometimes visited, as objects of curiosity, by men of rank; but the contempt and abhorrence with which in general they regarded us were exceedingly mortifying, and hurt us more than the ignominy of our chains. Our unfeeling guards, in imitation of their superiors, and to gratify the same malignant passions which influenced them, insulted and tyrannized over us with a brutality suitable to their low birth and condition. Applications for redress were heard at best with contemptuous indifference; and we were often told in plain terms, that it was not intended we should survive our imprisonment, unless we complied with the infamous requisition of bearing arms against our country. Those who know from experience the high feelings of a British officer, accustomed to command the sons of liberty, may judge of the bitterness of our degraded abject state, when, even within the narrow bounds of our prison, we were controlled, threatened, and sometimes struck by the lowest menial who guarded us. Like slaves, or rather felons, we were mustered and examined twice a-day, and the severest and most ignominious scrutiny of our persons followed a suspicion that we corresponded with our friends, confined in other prisons, or that we received supplies of money, or of necessaries from any quarter. Upon these occasions, we were conducted separately into places apart from the prison, and searched by the principal officers of the fort. This

separation from each other was needlessly prolonged, and never failed to excite in our minds the most lively apprehensions that we were selected to fall by poison or the sword, like many of our unhappy brethren, who had been removed from one prison to another for that execrable purpose. The tyrants who guarded us were apprized of our fears, and calculated their measures so as to increase them. The slightest advantage gained by their troops, was magnified to a decisive victory, and announced to our trembling ears by the fire of the artillery planted round our prison; each flash, each report of which struck horror to our hearts, and affected us like the knell of a dear departed relative, or bosom friend... We were often told (and through other channels we knew it to be the fact) that actual force had been used on the persons of many of our countrymen in other prisons, with the expectation, that when they bore the indelible mark of Mahometanism, they would apostatize from God, and abjure their earthly sovereign. The same abhorred expedient recurred to our minds, as intended for us, whenever a stranger of rank visited the prison, especially if he seemed to cast a scrutinizing eye on our persons. In such a state of complicated mental distress, nearly four years of the prime of life was consumed; and during this sad period our corporeal sufferings were not inferior, in their degree, to those of our minds. Our couch was the ground spread with a scanty allow

ance of straw; the same wretched covering which shielded our limbs from nakedness by day, served to enwrap them also by night. The sweepings of the granary were given us in any dirty utensil or broken earthen pot. Swarms of odious and tormenting vermin bred in our wounds, and every abomination to the sight and smell accumulated around us, till its continuance became intolerable to our guards.

"This full measure of woe was our portion during the term of our captivity; many a victim sunk under it, but more survived, to testify the goodness of the Almighty, in their marvellous redemption from the sundry kinds of death which alternately threatened to overwhelm them. How brittle is the thread of human life in itself! how indissoluble in its connection with Him, who hath given to man his appointed time upon the earth. Neither sword, nor sickness, nor consuming grief, can execute its deadly purpose without his special commission; his ministers they are, and they cannot go beyond his word.

"The period of our deliverance (long deferred, and almost despaired of) was now at hand. Peace being concluded, the olive branch waved its refreshing shade around the imprisoned captive. The welcome messenger, who was to free our limbs from their disgraceful fetters, was joyfully