t and affection, and latterly from the fears
with which she continued to inspire him, that she could, by her
disclosures, whenever she pleased, prevail upon the British
Government to set him aside in favour of some other member of the
royal family, as the Buhoo Begum of Fyzabad had set aside Wuzeer
Allee. She made him dismiss his father's minister, Aga Meer, with
disgrace, and confer the seals on Fuzl Allee, the nephew of her
favourite waiting-woman, Fyzon Nissa; but when the shrewd and
sagacious Hakeem Mehndee became minister three years after, he soon
persuaded the young King, that all fears of his adoptive mother's
disclosures or wishes were idle, and that nothing which she could do
or say would induce the British Government to disturb his possession
of the sovereignty of Oude. He is said to have been the first person
who ventured to hint to him the murder of his natural mother by the
Padshah Begum; and he was, or pretended to be, violently shocked and
grieved. He then built a splendid tomb or cenotaph for her; and
endowed it with the means for maintaining pious men to read the Koran
in it, and attendants of all kinds to keep it in a condition suitable
for the mother of a King. He shuddered, or pretended to shudder, at
the mention of the name of the Padshah Begum, as the most atrocious
of murderesses. The minister of the day always made it a point to
bring the reigning favourite of the seraglio over to his views, by
giving her a due share of the profits and patronage of his office;
and it was for this reason, that the high-born chief consort, whose
influence over the King could not be so purchased, was soon made to
retire from the palace, and, ever after, to live separated from her
husband.

The Padshah Begum had only one child, a daughter, who was united in
marriage to Mehndee Allee Khan, by whom she had three children,
Mohsen-od Dowlah, who was married to the daughter of Nuseer-od
Dowlah, the new King; and two daughters who were married to Mirza
Abool Kasim, and Mirza Aboo Torab. They lost their mother while yet
children, and the Padshah Begum brought them up and became much
attached to them. They had all from childhood been brought up with
Nuseer-od Deen, and were all much attached to him and to each other.
The ministers, fearing that this attachment might possibly lead to a
reconciliation between the King and his adoptive mother, and to their
ruin, left him and her no peace till, to save them, she forbade them