I felt entirely indebted to my fair and affectionate monitress, whose welcome letters now always expressed those friendly sentiments, and that confidence she bestowed upon me in former times.

Love may boast of its maddening pleasures, its soul-absorbing dominion; its all-powerful influence on the human mind; but can such feelings equal the softer, the gentler ties of confiding friendship; more particularly when woven with one of the opposite sex-one young, beautiful, noble-minded; to whom we owe a debt of gratitude and affection; and whose regard dates moreover from the period of our earliest youth?

Can such a Platonic attachment possibly long exist, without at last merging into the more ardent one of love?

Should this problem not here be solved; it may, perchance, become so in the sequel of my tale.

The representative of the British Government, at the Court of the Nizam, styled the Resident," occupies a magnificent palace at a place called Chudderghaut, separated by

the river Moussa from the city of Hyderabad ; and between five and six miles from the cantonment of Secunderabad.

Invested with more than the usual powers of an Ambassador, the Resident kept up a state and appearance, suitable to his position, and was withal hospitable in the extreme.

Notwithstanding the distance; the Residency its dinners, balls and parties, were eagerly resorted to by the officers of the Subsidiary force.

Public breakfasts were also given there once a-week, which we used frequently to attend, and afterwards usually spent the day at one or other of the hospitable abodes of the officials, residing at Chudderghaut.

On one of these occasions, the Residentever kind and courteous to all—after shaking me by the hand, intimated that he had something to communicate, on the departure of the other guests.

Most anxiously did I look forward to the conclusion of the repast; and then learnt with unrestrained delight, that in consequence of an intimation from the Governor-General, the first vacant appointment occurring in the Nizam's

Irregular Horse, should be conferred upon me; and meanwhile the Resident, in the most friendly manner, advised me to work hard in making myself proficient in the native languages—an injunction which I need hardly say I did not disregard.

CHAPTER VI.

MOUZUFFUR BEG THE AFFGHAN, AND HIS OPI

NIONS OF A CERTAIN CUNNING OLD WOMAN,

"Each revolving day echoes the execrations of thousands-aye, of millions- -on the authors of those laws, for the misery they have inflicted on misgoverned and plundered India."-From the Hon. F. J. Shore's "Notes on Indian Affairs."

"He (Lord Albemarle) "did not know in what terms to speak of that joint-stock company to which Parliament and the Government of this country had given the administration of the greatest possession of the British Crown. On their lordships would rest the responsibility, and they owed it to God and their country to blot out the evil and apply the remedy."—From Lord Albemarle's Speech in the House of Lords of April 14, 1856, respecting the use of TORTURE in India.

ENCOURAGED by the promises and assurances of the Resident, I stuck manfully to my studies, applying myself not only to the acquisition of Hindostannee, with which I was now tolerably conversant, but to that of other

anguages of the East; and having now a lefined and definite object in view; all my energies were brought into play and concentrated thereon; whilst I found in such unremitting occupation, the means of most effectually diverting my mind from the channel of its former painful thoughts.

I began indeed now to think that the loss of Agnes Seymour would not, after all, as I had imagined -prove such a death-blow to my future hopes of happiness and peace of mind. I lamented the follies her faithless conduct had caused me to commit, and further consoled myself with the conviction, that better was it for us both, her real disposition should thus early have been divulged, than at a later period, when much more mischief might have ensued.

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'Tis still the curse in love, and still approved, When women cannot love when they're beloved,"

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In the vernacular Hindostannee and Telougoo, I was tolerably conversant, and I now gave up my exclusive attention to the study of Persian the court language of the East-the language of its poets, of its legislators, of its Mahomedan conquerors, and sovereigns; which