‘Your Highness,’ began Somervile, measuring his words carefully so that none of their import might be lost. ‘Last October a body of — by some estimates — ten thousand Pindarees crossed the Nerbudda and swept through the nizam’s provinces as far as the Kistna.’
‘That I knew. And not even the Company’s subsidiary force in Haidarabad could do anything to prevent this,’ said the rajah accusingly.
‘I regret not, sir.’ Somervile cleared his throat and moved quickly on. ‘The Pindarees then returned to their stronghold in the wilderness between the Nerbudda and the Vinhya Hills with so much plunder that merchants came from far and wide to purchase it. And, with such demonstrable success, they were able to attract even greater numbers to their ranks. In February, therefore, a force three times as big as that which had ravaged Haidarabad crossed the Nerbudda again, but this time their object was the Company’s domain — the Northern Circars. They marched through Nagpore without, it seems, the rajah of that state raising a single musket to oppose them, poured into the Circars and sacked the civil station at Guntoor — not many days after you had left, Captain Hervey.’
‘I have only recently heard of it, Your Highness,’ said Hervey, turning to the rajah. ‘The destruction of life and property was very great, I understand.’
The collector confirmed it. ‘Over three hundred villages were plundered, many torched and razed to the ground. Two hundred persons put to death and three times as many grievously wounded. Thousands more — men and women — subjected to the vilest torture and defilement. Twenty-five lakhs of rupees — more than ?300,000 — is my estimate of the loss of property alone.’
The rajah sighed wearily. ‘I am troubled to learn that my fellow prince Raghujee Bhonsla should have connived at such outrages by letting through these marauders without hindrance.’
‘It is now of no moment, Your Highness,’ said the collector, ‘for the Rajah of Nagpore died one week ago.’
The rajah looked alarmed: ‘Raghujee Bhonsla is dead? I am very sad for it, but I am even more fearful, for Persajee — his son — is blind, palsied. He must not be rajah of so powerful a state as Nagpore!’
The collector remained wholly composed. ‘You need have no worry on that account, Your Highness. The rajah’s nephew Modajee — Appa Sahib — is, with the help of the Company, to be acknowledged as regent. We expect to conclude a treaty of alliance soon.’
‘Consider, father: a subsidiary force and a resident in Nagpore!’ said the raj kumari in a tone of disapproval.
Hervey had not noticed her beside the window, behind him.
The collector sought to reassure her. ‘Your Highness,’ he tried, ‘surely it would be best to have a reliable neighbour, as would be guaranteed by the Company? The Rajah of Nagpore will be forbidden to make any alliances except with the approval of the Governor-General and his council, and it is an express condition of the treaty that Nagpore should never initiate hostilities against allies of the British. He could therefore be of no threat to Chintal.’
‘But there is just such a treaty with the nizam,’ she countered. ‘There has been a British resident in Haidarabad these many years, and it has not made our position more assured.’
The collector was now seeing where the chief obstacle to his embassy lay. ‘You are right, madam, to say that Haidarabad has not been without tumult. But there has been no eruption of warfare outside that kingdom’s borders.’
‘That is as maybe,’ sneered the raj kumari, ‘but Haidarabad has used every subterfuge to gain an equal result. The nizam’s sons now throw the court into confusion while the resident is bribed into inaction!’
The collector bridled inwardly at the slur (though he would have admitted, privately, that there was truth in it), but forbore to show offence. Instead he tried to deflect the guilt. ‘Madam, I own that the Governor-General would at present share your poor opinion of Moneer-ool-moolk, but—’
She would hear none of it, however. ‘Sir, do you suppose we have no knowledge of affairs in Haidarabad? I speak not of the nizam himself, but of his vizier Chundoo Lall.
The collector knew he would have to trim. ‘Madam, I assure you that I am not insensitive to the concerns of Chintal. That, indeed, is why I am come. With the greatest of respect, the danger to Chintal lies first in the Pindarees. The Governor-General — and take note that it is Calcutta now which acts, not merely Madras — the Governor-General hopes very much that the Nagpore subsidiary force which will be embodied once the treaty is signed will be of sufficient strength to deter them. Six, or perhaps seven, thousand will be the number. Colonel Leach, a Company officer of considerable distinction, will be placed in command. Yet more is needed if these brutes are to be prevented from finding booty
The raj kumari was convinced this was but an incomplete explanation of their mission. ‘And what is your design for us, therefore?’
‘Your Highness, Lord Moira would welcome the assignment of the forces of Chintal to these efforts to keep the Pindarees north of the Nerbudda, or better still, to extirpate the menace once and for all.’
The rajah bade his daughter keep silent, and conceded there were fewer causes worthy of greater effort than the extirpation of the Pindarees. He thought for a while in silence, and then asked that the collector withdraw so that he might consider it more fully — which the agent of the Company did with all proper ceremony and deference. When he was gone, the rajah turned to Hervey and asked his opinion.
Hervey agreed wholeheartedly with the Company’s proposal. Indeed, it was the very thing his letter, now en route to Madras, urged. He might wish these overtures had begun in a manner less pressing, for the implication of concerted action from Fort William — from the very place, indeed, where he expected the Duke of Wellington to be installed in but a few months — made him acutely conscious of another factor. He was obliged to consider what might be the duke’s own wishes in the matter, for any alliances would constrain a new governor-general as surely as if they had been concluded by him in person. This much seemed easy, however, for a vigorous policy likely to promote greater peace would be entirely within the duke’s notion of stewardship. But Lord Moira’s intention to take vigorous action was so much at odds with what he had been told in Paris — that it was Moira’s very passivity which was most likely to lead to the duke’s being appointed in his place. ‘Sir,’ he began resolutely, but perplexed, ‘I believe you may be confident of my respect for you and of my affection for Chintal: I would do nothing that would imply otherwise.’
The rajah bowed.
‘I am strongly of the opinion that you should make an alliance with the Honourable Company — and with all haste. At least, that is, one limited in time or purpose, for a treaty is the greatest guarantee of your sovereignty in these difficult circumstances.’
The raj kumari turned on her heel and strode to the window, hissing. She would not engage in debate over the sovereignty of Chintal.
The rajah looked at her wearily, and then at Hervey. ‘Do you suppose they would send an officer in command of this subsidiary force who was sensible of my condition, Captain Hervey?’
‘It could only be to mutual benefit,’ he replied.
The rajah looked at his daughter again, and then bade him leave them.
For the first time, Hervey was conscious that no matter where he went in the palace, or its gardens, he was observed — or, at least, might be observed. And overheard, too, should he speak in more than a whisper. He would have liked to meet with the collector and Cornet Templer, but to do so could only arouse suspicion that he was in collusion with the Company. He therefore avoided their quarters and went instead to look for Emma Lucie. He found her beside one of the fountains in the water garden, reading — as if there were not a care in the whole of the palace. ‘Do I disturb you, madam?’ he enquired.
‘You do not disturb me, Captain Hervey,’ she said with a smile, closing her volume of the natural history of Madras. ‘But something disturbs you, evidently.’
Hervey sighed. ‘For all its perils, the battlefield is at least a place of simple certainties.’
She looked at him quizzically.
‘Events here have taken another turn.’
‘Why should you, above other men, be privileged to a life without confusions, Captain Hervey?’ she smiled.
