Colonel Patton, this tomb was rebuilt and
improved at the cost of Government, who were perfectly satisfied with
the result.

But in its reply, dated the 31st July, Government very justly
remarks, that all the unnecessary trouble which had attended this
investigation, as well as the very painful step of having the body
disinterred, which the Resident found himself compelled to adopt in
obedience to its orders, arose from a want of those obvious
precautions in the first instance which ought to have suggested
themselves to Colonel Patton. Had he made the requisite inquiries at
Secrora, he must have learnt that an English officer belonging to his
own regiment, who had been present at the interment, had been wounded
when Mr. Ravenscroft was murdered, and, for a time, rendered unfit
for duty. The facts since deposed to on oath by Ensign Platt might
have been elicited, and his testimony, if necessary, might have been
confirmed by the evidence of the widow of the deceased; and had such
conclusive evidence been submitted to Government in the first
instance, the doubts excited by the extraordinary circumstances of
the whole affair would never have existed. When ordered on the
inquiry to Bhinga, had Ensign Platt at once declared at Secrora that
he could there afford all the information required as to the fact of
the murder and interment of the body, the necessity of further
inquiry on the spot would have been obviated. He had apparently been
deterred from doing this by the apprehension of compromising both
himself and his commanding officer. Colonel Patton had no knowledge
of Mr. Ravenscroft being at Bhinga, though he had heard a rumour of
his being somewhere in the Oude territory; and, in his application
for a few days' leave, Ensign Platt made no mention of him or of his
intention to visit him. This is stated in a subsequent letter from
Colonel Patton to the Resident, dated 27th of August 1823.

The opinion that the Rajah had nothing whatever to do with the
murder, and that the gang was secretly hired for the purpose by his
eldest son, Surubjeet, has been confirmed by time, and is now
universal among the people of these parts. He died soon after of
dropsy, and the people believe that the disease was caused by the
crime. He left an only son, Krishun Dutt Sing. The Rajah, Seo Sing,
survived his eldest son some years; and, on his death, he was
succeeded by Krishun Dutt Sing, who now leads precisely the same
secluded life that h