though he would never
consent to hold any ostensible and responsible office.

Duljeet, a creature of Roshun-od Dowlah's, and prime favourite of the
late King, carried off, while the King lay dead, money and jewels to
the value of one lac of rupees, and concealed them in a vault at
Constantia. His associates, not satisfied with what he gave them,
betrayed him. The money and jewels were discovered and brought back,
and he was made to pay another lac of rupees to the treasury as a
fine. Dhunneea, the eldest of the two sisters, was made to disgorge
two lacs of rupees. Many other favourites of the late King were fined
in the same way.

The King had, in the case of Ghalib Jung, already described in this
Diary, declared his resolution of looking more closely into his
accounts in future, and punishing all transgressors in the same way;
and Roshun-od Dowlah often expressed to the Resident his
apprehensions that his turn to suffer must soon come. Sobhan Allee
Khan had much stronger grounds to fear, since he had made himself
utterly detested by the people generally, and had neither friends nor
connexions in the royal family or aristocracy of Lucknow. Under the
strong and general impression that the British Government was
determined to interpose, and take upon itself the administration of
the country, and that the King himself wished the independent
sovereignty of Oude to terminate with his reign, they most earnestly
desired his early death as their only chance of escape. The British
Government would not, they knew, make them refund any of their ill-
gotten wealth without full judicial proof of their peculations, and
this proof they knew could never be obtained. Indeed they were
satisfied that our Government, aware of the difficulty of finding
such proof, and occupied in forming and working a new system, would
not trouble themselves to seek for it; and that they should all be
left to reside where they chose, and enjoy freely the fruits of their
malversation.

The Resident had kept the instructions of the 15th of December, 1832,
from the supreme Government, a profound secret, lest they might lead
to intrigue and disturbance, and, above all, to the poisoning of many
innocent persons who might be considered to have a claim of right to
the throne; and all were surprised and confounded when it was
announced that the paramount power had already decided in favour of
Nuseer-od Dowlah, whose claims had never been thought of by the
peop