the long
room leading into it. The armed and furious throng filled all the
other rooms of the palace, the court-yard, eighty yards long, leading
to the baraduree (or summer-house) and all the four great halls of
that building, in one of which the throne stood.

The Resident felt that he was helpless in his present position, and
unable to do anything whatever to prevent the temporary triumph of
the insurgents, and the consequent tumult, pillage, and loss of life
that must follow; and that it would be better to try any change than
to remain in that helpless state. He thought that he might, if he
could once reach the Begum, be able to persuade her of the
impossibility of her ultimately succeeding in her attempt to keep the
pretender on the throne; and if not, that it would be of advantage to
get so much nearer to the place where the British troops most soon
arrive, and be drawn up in a garden to the south of the baraduree,
and to gain time for their arrival by a personal and open conference
with the Begum, during which he thought her followers would not be
likely to proceed to violence against his person, and those of his
attendants. He therefore persuaded one of the rebel sentries placed
over him to apprize the Begum that he wished to speak to her. She
sent to him Mirza Allee, one of her Wakeels; and with him Captain
Shakespear, and the Meer Moonshee, he forced his way through the
dense crowd, and got safely into the baraduree.

They found all the four halls, small apartments, and verandahs,
leading into them, filled with armed men in a state of great
excitement, and in the act of placing the pretender, Moonna Jan, on
the throne. The Begum sat in a covered palankeen at the foot of the
throne; and as the Resident entered, the band struck up "_God save
the King_," answered by a salute of blunderbusses within, and a
double royal salute from the guns in the "_jullooknana_," or northern
court-yard of the palace through which the Begun had passed in. Other
guns, which had been collected in the confusion to salute somebody
(though those who commanded and served them knew not whom), continued
the salute through the streets without. A party of dancing-girls,
belonging to the late King, or brought up by the Begum, began to
dance and sing as loud as they could at the end of the long hall in
front of the throne, at the same time that the crowd within and
without shouted their congratulations at the top of their voices, and
every m