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Rh The Nizám however had no mind to accept an arrangement which ignored his own claims over the ceded provinces. Alarmed by his threats of war, and painfully conscious of a drained exchequer, the Madras Council agreed to pay the Nizám tribute for the Circárs, and to aid him with their own troops in time of need. That time was fast approaching. Haidar Alí Khán was a Muhammadan soldier of fortune, whose strong will and dauntless courage, backed by a matchless turn for intrigue, had made him the foremost officer and at length the usurping ruler of the Hindu kingdom of Mysore, seated behind the woody ramparts of the Eastern Gháts. For some years past he had been filling his treasury and enlarging his frontiers at the expense not only of the Malabar princes, but even of the Maráthás and the Nizám. At last his growing power provoked the Nizám to make war upon him in concert with the young Maráthá Peshwá, Madhu Ráo, whose famous father, Bálaji, had died heartbroken after the rout of Pánípat.

Early in 1767 a great Maráthá army invaded Mysore. Buying the invaders off with a large ransom, Haidar next persuaded Nizám Alí to join him in attacking the very force which had been despatched from Madras to the Nizám's aid. Colonel Smith, however, and his brave little army were equal to the need. Two great victories, won against enormous odds, cleared the Karnatic of all invaders, and drove the faithless Nizám Alí to sue for peace. The treaty which had just been so foully broken, Palk's Council