Teherán and Lahore, and there was no Asiatic Court which did not watch eagerly for news of the great conqueror who seemed to rival Alexander the Great or Tamerlane in the swiftness and sureness of his successes.
Nor was their anxiety uncalled for. The ambition of Napoleon knew no limits; and at one time he seriously proposed to revive the scheme of a French-Indian Empire, which might earlier have been founded by the illustrious Dupleix, had his ungrateful country supported instead of deserting him. In 1808, the time for realizing this dream had passed, and Napoleon's idea of establishing in Persia a secure base of operations and successively subduing Kábul and Lahore was beyond his strength. But the knowledge of his intentions disquieted the English Government, and it was to counteract them that Mr. Elphinstone was deputed to the Court of Kabul and Mr. C. T. Metcalfe to come to terms with Ranjít Singh.
The Maharaja was quite astute enough to realize the embarrassments of the English, but was not in a position to profit by them. He felt himself anything but secure. The English were irritated by his invasion of Cis-Sutlej territory; the Afgháns were always ready to strike from the north; the Sikh barons of the Punjab proper were restive and suspicious; those whom he had subdued, eager for revenge; those whom he had not yet attacked, fearful of his treachery or violence. At the same time, his project of bringing all the Cis-Sutlej States under his rule and forming
