She was the only white captive left in the
Palace. There have been other girls, in a similar position, but they
have all, at about fourteen or fifteen, been given by Tippoo to his
officers; as would have been her fate, before long, so I determined to
carry her off with me, and bring her to you, until we could find her
parents. She is a very plucky girl, and, although she had never been
on a horse before, rode all the way down, until we got this side of
Kistnagherry. But as you may imagine, the poor little thing is
completely knocked up, so we brought her down from there in a cart.
"It is something, Mother, to have saved one captive from Tippoo's
grasp, even though it is not the dear one that I was looking for; and
I promised that you would be a mother to her, until we could restore
her to her friends."
"Certainly I will, Dick," Mrs. Holland said warmly.
"Will you tell the girls, Gholla," she said to her sister-in-law, "to
have a bed made up for her, in my room?"
"I will do so at once," the ranee said. "Poor little thing, she must
have had a journey, indeed."
"She will be here directly, Mother," Dick said, as his aunt gave the
necessary directions for the bed to be prepared, and a dish of rice
and strong gravy.
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