You see, my revenues have greatly diminished, and I cannot
afford to keep up so large a force as my father could. Fortunately,
his savings had been considerable, and from these I was able to build
this palace, and to succour my people, and have still enough to keep
up my establishment here, without pressing the cultivators of the soil
for taxes. This year is the first that I have drawn any revenue from
that source; but, at any rate, I am not disposed to keep up a force
which, while it would be insufficient to be of any great value in a
war like this, would be a heavy tax on my purse."
"Even the force you have must be that, Uncle."
"Not so much as you would think, Dick, with your English notions. The
pay here is very small--so small that it would seem to you impossible
for a man to live on it; and yet, many of these men have wives and
families. All of them have patches of land that they cultivate; only
twenty, who are changed once a month, being kept on duty. They are
necessary; for I should have but little respect from my people, and
less still from other rajahs, did I not have sentries at the gates,
and a guard ready to turn out in honour of any visitor who might
arrive; to say nothing of an escort, of half a dozen men, when I ride
through the country.
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