“All this I know,” said the Rajah; “but, as I told you, my mother sides with the Brahmins, who feel that under the new order of things they will lose their horrible, tyrannical hold upon the common people, and keep them in ignorance and slavery no longer.”
“And what about the Rajah of Singh?”
“I fear it is by the invitation of people near me that he has declared war. It is hard, when one tries for the good, to find enemies springing up on all sides.”
“And friends too,” said Hulton.
“Yes,” said the Rajah, smiling, “and brave friends. Yesterday I was in despair, for I thought the help I had asked from the Company would never come. Now I live again, and am content.”
“Is the Rajah of Singh very strong?”
“Just about as strong as I should be were all here faithful to me; but there are so many that I cannot trust. With you here, though, I feel his equal.”
“I’m afraid,” said Hulton quietly, “that the Rajah, your enemy, will lose his possessions, for in declaring war against you he has declared war against the Company; and if we are not enough to defeat him, more and more will be sent until the task is done.”
“You make me live again,” said the Rajah excitedly. “I always felt that the English would see justice done, and it would be an injustice for another to take the country I inherited from my fathers.”
“Certainly it would, and you have nothing to fear, sir.”