ns of rank being held in that country as a mark of indelible
infamy, and he also, in all probability, considering his imprisonment as
a prelude to the taking away his life,) and in the first of the said
petitions he did express himself in this manner: "Whatever may be your
pleasure, do it with your own hands; I am your slave. What occasion can
there be for a guard?" And in the other: "My honor was bestowed upon me
by your Highness. It depends on you alone to take away or not to take
away the country out of my hands. In case my honor is not left to me,
how shall I be equal to the business of the government? Whoever, with
his hands in a supplicating posture, is ready with his life and
property, what necessity can there be for him to be dealt with in this
way?"

XI. That, according to the said Hastings's narrative of this
transaction, he, the said Hastings, on account of the apparent
despondency in which these letters were written, "thought it _necessary_
to give him _some_ encouragement," and therefore wrote him a note of a
few lines, carelessly and haughtily expressed, and little calculated to
relieve him from his uneasiness, promising to send to him a person to
explain particulars, and desiring him "to set his mind at rest, and not
to conceive any terror or apprehension." To which an answer of great
humility and dejection was received.

XII. That the report of the Rajah's arrest did cause a great alarm in
the city, in the suburbs of which the Rajah's palace is situated, and in
the adjacent country. The people were filled with dismay and anger at
the outrage and indignity offered to a prince under whose government
they enjoyed much ease and happiness. Under these circumstances the
Rajah desired leave to perform his ablutions; which was refused, unless
he sent for water, and performed that ceremony on the spot. This he
did. And soon after some of the people, who now began to surround the
palace in considerable numbers, attempting to force their way into the
palace, a British officer, commanding the guard upon the Rajah, struck
one of them with his sword. The people grew more and more irritated; but
a message being sent from the Rajah to appease them, they continued, on
this interposition, for a while quiet. Then the Rajah retired to a sort
of stone pavilion, or bastion, to perform his devotions, the guard of
sepoys attending him in this act of religion. In the mean time a person
of the meanest station, called a _chubdar_