the road; and many children were trodden to death by the animals on
the road, which was crowded for more than ten miles.

Rughbur Sing and his agents, Beharee Lal, Kurum Hoseyn, Maharaj Sing,
Prag Sing, and others, selected several thousand of the finest
cattle, and sent them to their homes; and the rest were left to the
officers and soldiers of the force to be disposed of; and, for all
this enormous number of animals, worth at least one hundred thousand
rupees, the small sum of one hundred and thirty rupees was credited
in the Nazim's accounts to the Rajah's estate. At Busuntpoor the
force was divided into two parties, for the purpose of torturing the
surviving prisoners till they consented to sign bonds, for the
payment of such sums as might be demanded from them. Beharee Lal
presided over the first party, in which they were tortured from day-
break till noon. They were tied up and flogged, had red-hot ramrods
thrust into their flesh, their tongues were pulled out with hot
pincers and pierced through; and, when all would not do, they were
taken to Kurum Hoseyn, who presided at the other party, to be
tortured again till the evening. He sat with a savage delight, to
witness this brutal scene and invent new kinds of torture. No less
than seventy men, besides women and children, perished at Busuntpoor
from torture and starvation; and their bodies were left to rot in the
mud, and their friends were afraid to approach them. Bustee's body
was stolen at night by his son, and Guyadut's was sold to his family
by the soldiers.

Among the persons of respectability who died under the tortures,
several are named below.* Buldee Sing, the husband of the Rajah's
sister, took poison and died; and Ramdeen, a Brahmin of great
respectability, stabbed himself to death, to avoid further torture
and dishonour. For two months did these atrocities continue at
Busuntpoor; and during that time the prisoners got no food from the
servants of Government. All that they got was sent to them by their
friends, or by the charitable peasantry of the country around; and
when sweetmeats were sent to them as food, which the most scrupulous
could eat from any hand, the soldiers often snatched them from them
and ate them themselves, or took them to their officers. The women
and children were all stripped of their clothes, and many died from
cold and want of sustenance. It was during the months of September
and October that these atrocities were perpetrated.