1. The Seven Years' War, which came to a close in 1763, left Britain everywhere triumphant. But she was not left long to enjoy her triumph. Days of darkness came upon her, bringing defeat and disaster, and the loss of her principal colonies. Everywhere she had to fight to hold her own. And how well this was done for her in India by one of her ablest sons our story shall now tell. 2. If Clive was the founder of British rule in India, Warren Hastings was its preserver. Like Clive, he began his career as a clerk in the service of the East India Company. In the Bengal war he shouldered a musket and fought at Plassey; but Clive's quick eye soon perceived that there was more in his head than his arm, and he employed him as his agent at the court of the new nawab, Meer Jaffier. From this time Hastings steadily rose in the Company's service, until, in 1774, he was made Governor-General of India, the first to hold that office. 3. India at this time was a medley of nations under the nominal headship of the "Great Mogul"; but his power was very limited, and the princes who ruled in his name did much as they pleased. The most powerful of these native rulers were the Mahratta chiefs, and for many years it was a question whether the Mahrattas or the British should be the leading power in India. 4. The original seat of this fierce and cunning people was the wild range of hills that run along the western coast of India. When the Mogul empire fell to pieces, some time previously, the Mahratta chiefs made themselves masters of the central provinces, with Poona as their headquarters. They founded states which spread from sea to sea, and their sword was always at the service of the highest bidder. They were almost equally dreaded by friend and foe; the former were ruined by the heavy pay they extorted, and the latter had their country ravaged by fire and sword. Their cavalry moved in large bodies with marvellous speed, and wherever "their kettledrums were heard the peasant threw his bag of rice on his shoulder, hid his small savings in his girdle, and fled with his wife and children to the mountains or jungles, to the milder neighbourhood of the hyæna and the tiger."