sked Mr. Markham
about an answer to my letter about the horse; but he told me that he did
not know the reason of no answer having been sent. I remained
astonished."

XII. That the said Hastings is guilty of an high offence in not giving
an answer to letters of such importance, and in concealing the said
letters from the Court of Directors, as well as much of his
correspondence with the Residents,--and more particularly in not
directing to what place the cavalry and matchlock-men aforesaid should
be sent, when the Rajah had declared they were ready to go to whatever
service should be destined for them, and afterwards in maliciously
accusing the Rajah for not having sent the same.

XIII. That, on the 3d of February, 1781, a new demand for the support of
the three fictitious battalions of sepoys aforesaid was made by the said
Warren Hastings; but whilst the Rajah was paying by instalments the said
arbitrary demand, the said Rajah was alarmed with some intelligence of
secret projects on foot for his ruin, and, being well apprised of the
malicious and revengeful temper of the said Hastings, in order to pacify
him, if possible, offered to redeem himself by a large ransom, to the
amount of two hundred thousand pounds sterling, to be paid for the use
of the Company. And it appears that the said alarm was far from
groundless; for Major Palmer, one of the secret and confidential agents
of the said Hastings, hath sworn, on the 4th of December, 1781, at the
desire of the said Warren Hastings, before Sir Elijah Impey, to the
following effect, that is to say: "That the said Warren Hastings had
told him, the said Palmer, that he, the said Hastings, had rejected the
offer of two hundred thousand pounds made by the Rajah of Benares for
the public service, and that he was resolved _to convert the faults
committed by the Rajah into a public benefit_, and would exact the sum
of five hundred thousand pounds, as a punishment for his breach of
engagements with the government of Bengal, and acts of misconduct in his
zemindary; and if the Rajah should absolutely refuse the demand, that he
would deprive him of his zemindary, or transfer the sovereignty thereof
to the Nabob of Oude."

XIV. And Mr. Anderson, in his declaration from Sindia's camp, of the 4th
of January, 1782, did also, at the desire of Mr. Hastings, depose
(though not on oath) concerning a conversation between him and the said
Hastings (but mentioning neither the time nor place