er any information had previously
reached Secrora of Mr. Ravenscroft's actually residing at Bhinga, or
at any other place within the dominions of the King of Oude. "His
Lordship in Council was," Mr. Swinton says, "satisfied, from the
known humanity of Colonel Patton's character, that every possible aid
and comfort had been extended to Mrs. Ravenscroft and her child; and
the information which that lady and her attendants must have it in
their power to give, could not fail to place the whole affair in its
proper light." Extracts from this letter were sent by the Resident to
Colonel Patton, on the 2nd of June, with a request that he would
adopt immediate measures to carry the orders of Government into
effect; and reply to the question whether any information of Mr.
Ravenscroft's residing at Bhinga had previously reached him.

A committee of British officers was assembled at Bhinga on the 11th
June, and their proceedings were transmitted to the Resident on the
18th of that month; but the committee, for some reasons stated in the
report, did not examine "the grave in which the body of the deceased
was said to have been deposited." Though in this committee Ensign
Platt stated that he was present when the murder was perpetrated;
that he attended the deceased till he died the next night, and
performed the funeral ceremonies over the body on the morning of the
8th; still he seemed to narrate the circumstances of the event with
some reserve, while there was a good deal of discrepancy in the
evidence of the other eye-witnesses, as recorded in the report,
seemingly from the dread of compromising Ensign Platt.

The Resident did not, therefore, think that Government would be
satisfied with the result of this inquiry; and, on the 20th of June
he directed Colonel Patton to reassemble the committee at Bhinga, and
require it to hold an inquest on the body, and take the depositions
of all the witnesses on oath. On the same day the Resident reported
to Government what he had done. The second committee proceeded to
Bhinga, and, on the 13th of July, Colonel Patton transmitted its
report to the Resident, who submitted it to Government on the 17th of
that month. The committee had taken the evidence of the witnesses on
oath, and held an inquest on the body; but, in doing so, it had been
necessary to dig through the tomb which Mrs. Ravenscroft had, in the
interval, caused to be erected over the remains of her husband; and,
at the suggestion of