At one time the Peishwar and the Nizam, as the Subadar of the Deccan
was now called, would be fighting in alliance against one or other of
the Mahratta chiefs. At another time they would be in conflict with
each other, while the Rajah of Mysore, Murari Reo, and other chiefs
were sometimes fighting on one side, sometimes on another.
Proud of his rapidly increasing force, Boorhau Reo would, more than
once in the course of the year, have joined in the warfare going on
around. Charlie, however, succeeded in restraining him from doing so;
pointing out that the victor of one day was the vanquished of the
next, and that it was worse than useless to join in a struggle of
which the conditions were so uncertain, and the changes of fortune so
rapid, that none could count upon others for aid, however great the
assistance they might have rendered only a short time before.
"Were you to gain territory, Rajah, which you might, perhaps, largely
do, from the efficient aid which you might render to one party or the
other, you would be the object of a hostile combination against which
you could not hope to struggle."
The rajah yielded at once to Charlie's arguments; but the influence of
the latter added to the hostility, which the favour shown him by the
rajah had provoked, among many of the leading men of the state.
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