movable and immovable, attended with
unworthy and unbecoming menaces, highly offensive to the manners of the
East and the particular respect there paid to the female sex,--which
letters and orders, as well as the letters which he had received from
the officers concerned, the said Hastings did unlawfully suppress, until
forced by the disputes between him and the said officers to discover
the same: and the said orders are as follow.

"I am this instant favored with yours of yesterday. Mine of the same
date [22d October, 1781] has before this time acquainted you with my
resolutions and sentiments respecting the Rannee [the mother of the
Rajah Cheyt Sing]. I think every demand she has made to you, except that
of safety and respect for her person, is unreasonable. If the reports
brought to me are true, _your rejecting her offers, or any negotiations
with her_, would soon obtain you possession of the fort upon your own
terms. I apprehend that she will contrive _to defraud the captors of a
considerable part of the booty by being suffered to retire without
examination. But this is your consideration, and not mine. I should be
very sorry that your officers and soldiers lost ANY PART of the reward
to which they are so well entitled_; but I cannot make any objection, as
you must be the best judge of the expediency of the _promised_
indulgence to the Rannee. What you have engaged for I will certainly
ratify; but as to permitting the Rannee to hold the purgunnah of Hurluk,
or any other in the zemindary, without being subject to the authority of
the zemindar, or any lands whatever, _or indeed making any conditions
with her for a provision, I will never consent to it_." And in another
letter to the same person, dated Benares, 3d of November, 1781, in which
he, the said Hastings, consents that the said woman of distinction
should be allowed to evacuate the place and to receive protection, he
did express himself as follows. "I am willing to grant her now the same
conditions to which I at first consented, provided that she delivers
into your possession, within twenty-four hours from the time of
receiving your message, the fort of Bidzigur, with the treasure and
effects lodged therein by Cheyt Sing or any of his adherents, with the
reserve only, as above mentioned, of such articles _as you shall think
necessary to her sex and condition_, or as you shall be disposed _of
yourself to indulge her with_. If she complies, as I expect she will, i