at a
messenger had executed his commission properly.

"Your gracious letter," (he thus writes,) "in answer to the petition of
your servant from Goondah, exalted me. From the contents, I became
unspeakably impressed with the honor it conferred."

My Lords, this letter was not sent back by a messenger, in
acknowledgment of his having done his duty, but was written in
consequence of a correspondence in the nature of a petition for
something or other which he made to the Begum. That petition they have
suppressed and sunk. It is plain, however, that the petition had been
sent, and was granted; and therefore the apology that is made for the
former letter does not apply to this letter, which was written
afterwards.

How, then, do they attempt to get rid of this difficulty? Why, says
Captain Gordon, "_The Colonel Saib_ (by whom was meant Colonel Hannay)
was not at Goondah, as stated in the letter, but at Succara, about
eighteen miles from it, and therefore you ought not to pay much regard
to this paper." But he does not deny the letter, nor was it possible for
him to deny it. He says Colonel Hannay was not there. But how do we know
whether Colonel Hannay was there or not? We have only his own word for
it. But supposing he was not there, and that it was clearly proved that
he was eighteen miles distant from it, Major Naylor was certainly with
Captain Gordon at the time. Might not his Persian scribe (for he does
not pretend to say he wrote the letter himself) take Major Naylor for a
colonel, (for he was the superior officer to Captain Gordon,) and think
him the Colonel Saib? For errors of that kind may be committed in our
own country. Every day we may take a major for a lieutenant-colonel.
This was an error that might easily have happened in such a case. He was
in as high rank as Colonel Hannay; for Colonel Hannay at that time was
only a major. I do not believe either of them was properly entitled to
the name of Colonel Saib. I am ashamed, my Lords, to be obliged to
remark upon this prevarication. Their own endeavors to get rid of their
own written acts by contradictory evidence and false constructions
sufficiently clear these women of the crimes of which they were accused;
and I may now ask the prisoner at your bar how he dares to produce
Captain Gordon here, how he dares thus to insult the Peers, how he dares
thus to insult the public justice of his country, after not having dared
to inquire, upon the spot, of this man, to w