He has been giving me the highest report of
your conduct and courage, and he tells me that you speak the language
with some facility."
"I have been working hard, sir," Charlie said, "and have had a
moonshee for the last year; and as, except when on duty, I have spoken
nothing but the native language with him, I can now speak it almost as
fluently as I can English."
"So Captain Clive has been telling me," Mr. Saunders said; "and it is,
indeed, on that ground that I select you for the service. Your friend
Mr. Peters has equally distinguished himself in the field, Captain
Clive tells me, but he is greatly your inferior in his knowledge of
the vernacular."
This was indeed the case. Peters had but little natural aptitude for
foreign languages; and after working hard, for a time, with the
moonshee, he found that he was making so little progress, in
comparison with Charlie, that he lost heart; and although he had
continued his lessons with the moonshee, he had done so only to the
extent of an hour or so a day, whereas Charlie had devoted his whole
leisure time to the work.
"The facts of the case are these, Mr. Marryat. Owing to the failure,
of Muhammud Ali, to fulfil the ridiculously onerous terms extorted
from him, by some of his native allies, during the siege of
Trichinopoli, several of them are in a state of discontent, which is
likely soon to break out into open hostilities.
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