The rich pavilions of the principal
persons flamed with silk and gold; and spears
with gilded points, or poles supporting gold knobs,
displayed numerous little banners, inscribed with
the name of the Prophet. This was the camp of
the Begum Mootee Mahul, who, with a small body
of her troops, about two hundred men, was waiting
the return of Tippoo under the walls of Bangalore.
Their private motives for desiring a meeting the
reader is acquainted with; to the public the visit
of the Begum had only the appearance of an act of
deference, frequently paid by inferior and subordinate
princes to the patrons whom they depend
upon.
These facts ascertained, the Sirdar of the Nawaub
took up his own encampment within sight of that
of the Begum, but at about half a mile's distance,
dispatching to the city a messenger to announce
to the Prince Tippoo, so soon as he should arrive,
that he had come hither with the English Vakeel.
The bustle of pitching a few tents was soon over,
and Hartley, solitary and sad, was left to walk under
the shade of two or three mango-trees, and
looking to the displayed streamers of the Begum's
encampment, to reflect that amid these insignia of
Mahomedanism Menie Gray remained, destined by
a profligate and treacherous lover to the fate of
slavery to a heathen tyrant.
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