Central-northern India, Ujjain, the historic city of Gwalior State.
Daulat Rao Scindia, ruler of Gwalior, glared coldly at the white man standing to his right and suppressed his anger as he said, "I don't quite understand what you mean by 'asking the Emperor for aid.'"
Had any other Gwalior official said those things to him, they would most likely already have been executed.
But with the English Army pressing at the borders, and with him having lost Commander-in-Chief Perron, this French adventurer named Louis Bourquin was now his last remaining support.
Yes, Scindia had never imagined that seven thousand English troops would take less than a day to seize Aligarh Fortress, which had been defended by more than thirteen thousand Gwalior soldiers trained in the European style.
Perron had abandoned the fortress and fled early that morning. Yet he was later caught by English cavalry and simply surrendered.
Now, more than ten thousand English troops were pouring toward Scindia's Yamuna River line of defense, while over forty thousand Mysore troops were closing in from the south. Gwalior was in grave danger. Just as Scindia had gathered his ministers to discuss a response, Bourquin suddenly suggested asking Alam II, who had only just fled to Pune, for aid. That blind man had still been Scindia's prisoner last month, yet now they were supposed to beg him to save their lives!
Bourquin bowed and said, "Great King, with our present forces, it will be nearly impossible to hold back enemies from two directions.
"From what I know, the people of Mysore have sworn allegiance to the Emperor and are earnestly fulfilling that oath.
"If you can obtain the Emperor's forgiveness and have him step forward to stop the Mysore army from continuing north, then perhaps we may still have hope of victory