His sympathies were, of course,
with your people; but most of the chiefs were, at heart, in favour of
Hyder. It was not that they loved him, or preferred the rule of Mysore
to that of Madras. But at that time Madras was governed by imbeciles.
Its Council was composed entirely of timid and irresolute men. It was
clear to all that, before any force capable of withstanding him could
be put in the field, the whole country, beyond reach of the guns of
the forts at Madras, would be at the mercy of Hyder.
"What that mercy was, had been shown elsewhere. Whole populations had
been either massacred, or carried off as slaves. Therefore, when the
storm was clearly about to burst, almost all of them sent secret
messages to Hyder, to assure him that their sympathies were with him,
and that they would gladly hail him as ruler of the Carnatic.
"My father was in no way inclined to take such a step. His marriage
with an English woman, the white blood in my veins, and his long-known
partiality for the English, would have marked him for certain
destruction; and, as soon as he received news that Hyder's troops were
in movement, he rode with me to Madras. At that time, his force was
comparatively large, and he took three hundred men down with us.
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