irresistible. I go, however, reluctantly, and wish that I could have been allowed to rest in peace in the quarter which has now become the home of my heart. I shall quit my public duties here with great regret. I shall quit my friends with greater." He felt, indeed, acutely the severance of these ties; and soon afterwards he wrote to a friend, that he looked to a Calcutta fever as one of the least of the evils which threatened him, and hoped to find in it relief from other more corroding anxieties and distresses.

DELHI REVISITED.

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CHAPTER IV.

[1825-1827.]

DELHI REVISITED.

Metcalfe's Return to Calcutta-Residence there-Death of Sir David Ochterlony-Bhurtpore Affairs-Views of the Government-Metcalfe's MinuteDeparture for Delhi-Advance of the Armies-Metcalfe in Camp-Fall of Bhurtpore-Subsequent Proceedings-Death of Barnett and Wells-Visit of Lord Amherst-Appointment to Council.

NEVER had more unwelcome honors been conferred on a public servant than those which now descended upon Sir Charles Metcalfe. In spite of all the vexations and annoyances which beset his position, the Hyderabad Residency had become very dear to him. More than twenty years before, he had recorded a resolution not to form any more romantic attachments; but he had been forming them ever since. Indeed, it may be said of him, that he fell in friendship as other men fall in love. There was at once an ardor and a tenderness in his affection little removed from the degree in which these qualities evince themselves in our attachments to the other sex. He had gathered round him at Hyderabad a beloved circle of friends, to be broken from time to time by the necessities of the public

service, but always to reunite again. And although some of these friends might accompany him to Delhi, it was certain that the old Hyderabad party could never again reassemble in all its pleasant integrity.* It was with extreme depression of spirits, therefore, that he now made his preparations for the coming change.

There were other causes, too, in operation, to increase the reluctance which he felt to his aproaching departure from the Deccan-causes of a public character. He was anxious in the extreme for the success of the measures which he was pushing forward for the regeneration of the long-devastated provinces of Hyderabad; and he had no assurance that his successor would carry out the system which he had so steadily maintained. But to the call of the Government he responded without reservation, that he was willing to take upon himself any service which his superiors considered would be advantageous to the interests of the State; and he asked whether it were expedient that he should proceed to Delhi with all possible despatch. Lord Amherst was at this time on the river recruiting his impaired health; and in reply to the reference made to him by Mr. Swinton, he wrote that he was

*To one of these friends Metcalfe wrote, "I am out of spirits at the change in my prospects. I looked forward to the assemblage of all I love, and a happy time during the rains-our labors in the country to be afterwards resumed. I cannot say that I shall be here for a month, as I must be prepared to start at a moment's notice. Then to leave all behind. I wish that I could take you all with

me, and then, although I should still regret our desertion of the fate of this country, my personal regrets would be converted into joyful anticipations."

[Hyderabad, May 12, 1825.] Of these friends, Captain Sutherland accompanied Sir Charles Metcalfe to Delhi; and Mr. R. Wells and Lieutenant Hislop afterwards joined him there.

ARRIVAL AT CALCUTTA.

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"inclined to avail himself of the ready disposition which Sir Charles shows to give us his immediate assistance, and to request him to come to Calcutta, so as to start thence by dawk as soon as the season will permit."

To Lord Amherst, Metcalfe had greatly recommended himself during his visit to Calcutta in the preceding year; and he had left the Presidency "carrying away with him," as the Governor-General wrote, "the sincere good wishes of every one in Government House for the entire re-establishment of his health." And now the kind-hearted nobleman wrote to Mr. Swinton to ask, "whether he, or any other friend of Sir Charles Metcalfe, had been commissioned to look out for quarters for him in Calcutta ?" "If so," he added, "I beg to acquaint you that I shall have much pleasure in accommodating him, with one or two gentlemen who may accompany him, with quarters at Government House." Metcalfe had made other arrangements; and when he reached Calcutta, at the latter end of August, he took up his abode at the house of an old friend, Major Lockett, of the College of Fort Williamthe same house in Chowringhee which Sir Charles had formerly occupied on his own account.

But

He arrived in Calcutta not in good health; not in good spirits. He had restless nights, and an impaired appetite; he felt the effects of morning labor in evening heaviness and lethargy. The weather during the last weeks of August had been close and sultry; but some heavy falls of rain early in September had cleared the atmosphere and lowered the

1

1

geture. With this favorable change Metcalfe

enly revived, and wrote to his friends at Hyderhad that he was "as well as ever."* But his Jost, untravelled, stillf ondly turned towards the HyBerabad Residency, and he wrote that, although he had little expectation of such an issue, he still hoped that some difference of opinion between Government and himself relative to the course of policy to be pursued in the North-west might occasion his return to the Residency. But this hope was soon abandoned; and on the 11th of September he wrote: "My sentiments as to the course to be pursued with the several refractory states in the quarter whither I am going, seem to be approved and adopted by the Government; and I am now only waiting for my instructions, which I conclude will be in conformity with my recommendations. I

* Writing on the 24th of August, he thus complained of his health: "I have seldom been less well than since I parted from you. My nights are restless. I get very well through the days, during which I have been fully occupied, but owing to want of sleep, I am weary and lethargic after dinner to a distressing degree."-On the 3rd of September he wrote, that a favorable change of weather (rain) had quite restored him: "I have a good appetite at meals," he said, "and sleep well at night. In short, I am as well as I ever was."

"You will have heard," he wrote, "that on account of the importance attached by the members of the Government, one and all, to my proceeding to the northward, I have not ventured to make any proposition for my return to Hyderabad, and although this is, if possible, more than ever the anxious wish of my heart, I see my successor making preparations for his departure, which I long to put a stop

to, but have not the power. My only chance now rests in the occurrence of some improbable and inconceivable event in the short interval which remains, such as can neither be hoped nor imagined. The period of my own departure to the northward is still unfixed. Government has not come to any determination on any one of the subjects to which I shall immediately have to attend. I have read all the necessary papers, and I shall begin to put down my notions as to what we ought to do in each case of our embarrassment. These, I presume, will go in circulation among the members of Government, and I have the impudence to expect that they will be adopted. I could almost wish the reverse; for a decided difference of opinion would be a good plea for proposing to return, instead of going on-but even this hope I am unable to cherish."―[Calcutta, August 24, 1825.]

See post, pp. 140, et seq.