The rajah received him in his palace; and Harry saw at once, by the scowling faces of the men who gathered round him, that he had only waited for the news that Holkar's army was near Delhi before throwing off the mask of friendship.
"I have come over, Rajah," he said, "to tell you that Colonel Ochterlony requests that you will send every available fighting man to Delhi, at once.

He prays you to despatch as many as you can possibly gather together." The rajah replied coldly: "Why should I do so?
By tomorrow night Holkar, with his great army, will have captured the town.

Why should I send my men there to die, fighting for strangers?
I take no orders from them.

I have received the Emperor's, it is true; but he is old and infirm, and is a prisoner in your hands." "I deny that he is a prisoner, Rajah.

He is treated with all honour, and is in a very different position from that which he occupied when he was imprisoned by the Mahrattas." "The Mahrattas are a great people," the rajah answered, angrily.
"Has not Holkar driven a force of the infidels into Agra?
And soon, when he has captured Delhi, he will defeat the rest of them, and carry his arms to Benares." "In that case," Harry said quietly, "it is a pity that he did not first crush the English army, and then march to Benares, and finish with Delhi at his leisure.