[Illustration:  THE THREE COMMANDERS-IN-CHIEF IN INDIA. 
                GENERAL SIR FREDERICK SLEIGH ROBERTS. 
GENERAL SIR ARTHUR E. HARDINGE.  GENERAL SIR DONALD MARTIN STEWART.]

The reports of commanding officers, on the results of these small ameliorations, after a six months’ trial, were so favourable that I was able to authorize still further concessions as a premium on good behaviour.

The Madras Presidency abounds in places of interest connected with our earlier struggles in India, and it was possible to combine pleasure with duty in a very delightful manner while travelling about the country.  My wife frequently accompanied me in my tours, and enjoyed as much as I did our visits to many famous and beautiful places.  Madras itself recalled the struggles for supremacy between the English and French in the middle of the eighteenth century.  Arcot reminded one that it was in the brilliant capture and still more brilliant defence of the fort at that place that Clive’s soldierly genius first became conspicuous.  Trichinopoly and Wandewash made one think of Stringer Lawrence’s and Eyre Coote’s splendid services, and while standing on the breach at Seringapatam, one was reminded of Wellington’s early life in India, and marvelled how heavily-armed men could have ventured to cross the single plank which alone spanned the deep, broad ditch of the inner defences.

I should like to dwell on the architectural wonders of Tanjore and the Caves of Ellora; the magnificent entertainments and Princely hospitality accorded to us by the Nizam of Hyderabad, the late Maharajas of Mysore and Travancore, the Maharaja of Vizianagram, the Raja of Cochin, and many other Rulers of Native States; the delights of a trip along the west coast by the beautiful ‘back-water,’ and the return journey through the glorious forests of Cannara and Mysore; the pleasure of visiting the lovely ’White Lady’[4] and the wonderful Kaveri falls; but to give my readers any idea of their marvels would be to put too great a strain upon their patience, which I fear has already been severely taxed.

The late Maharaja of Travancore was an unusually enlightened Native.  He spoke and wrote English fluently; his appearance was distinguished, and his manners those of a well-bred, courteous English gentleman of the old school.  His speech on proposing the Queen’s health was a model of fine feeling and fine expression, and yet this man was steeped in superstition.  His Highness sat, slightly retired from the table, between my wife and myself while dinner was going on; he partook of no food or wine, but his close contact with us (he led my wife in to dinner and took her out on his arm) necessitated his undergoing a severe course of purification at the hands of the Brahmins as soon as the entertainment was over; he dared not do anything without the sanction of the priests, and he spent enormous sums in propitiating them.