Excerpt from The Company's Servant: A Romance of Southern India " Lord of Himself, though not of lands, And hiving nothing - yet hath all." Sir Henry Wotton. "Man is his own star, and the soul that can, Render an honest and a perfect man. Command all light, all influence, all fate, Nothing to him falls early or too late. Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, Our fatal shadows that walk by us still." Beaumont and Fletcher. The thin mantle of a tropical night, still enshrouded the district of Shezada in Southern India. Yet although the land lay wrapped in sleep, dawn was approaching with swift and stealthy footsteps; heralded by the whisperings of a timid breeze, and the notes of wakening birds, it appeared with a sudden flash of yellow light, glimmering along the horizon. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ... THE COMPANY'S SERVANT. H IRomance of Soutbern Snota. CHAPTER I. "Lord of Himself, though not of lands. And having nothing--yet hath all." Sir Henry Wotton. "Man is his own star, and the soul that can, Render an honest and a perfect man, Command all light, all influence, all fate, Nothing to him falls early or too late. Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, Our fatal shadows that walk by us still." Beaumont And Fletcher. The thin mantle of a tropical night, still enshrouded the district of Shezada in Southern India. Yet although the land lay wrapped in sleep, dawn was approaching with swift and stealthy footsteps; heralded by the whisperings of a timid breeze, and the notes of wakening birds, it appeared with a sudden flash of yellow light, glimmering along the horizon. As the magical moment arrived, there was an almost imperceptible pause, the curtain of darkness was about to be withdrawn--what would it reveal? When shadows were rolled aside, and the sky became transformed into a blaze of gold, there was exposed no scene of shining water, feathery palms or towering temples; merely a flat, monotonous plain, and an ordinary whitewashed railway station. To the left, lay a flock of tents (Government pattern), to the right, the outline of a large settlement; beyond, at some distance, could be descried the low roofs, and grey blue smoke, of a straggling bazaar, and on a rock frowning over all, the ruins of a malevolent Mahratta fort. A prominent board on the station platform displays its name and district in English and Tamil characters, which latter resemble a key pattern in Greek embroidery. "Tani-Kul," a well-known junction, enjoys a wide reputation for its clean white beds, real tea, excellent curry, and succulent popodams--it is also...