t
will be your part to secure the fort and the property it contains _for
the benefit of yourself and detachment_. I have only further to request
that you will grant an escort, if Panna should require it, to conduct
her here, or wherever she may choose to retire to. But should she refuse
to execute the promise she has made, _or delay it beyond the term of
twenty-four hours_, it is my _positive_ injunction that you immediately
put a stop to any further intercourse or negotiation with her, and on no
pretext renew it. If she disappoints _or trifles_ with me, after I have
subjected my duan to the disgrace of returning ineffectually, and of
course myself to discredit, I shall consider it as a _wanton affront and
indignity which I can never forgive_, nor will I grant her any
conditions whatever, but leave her exposed to _those dangers_ which she
has chosen to risk rather than trust to the clemency and generosity of
our government. I think _she cannot be ignorant of these consequences,
and will not venture to incur them_; and it is for this reason I place a
dependence on her offers, and have consented to send my duan to her."

XIX. That the castle aforesaid being surrendered upon terms of safety,
and on express condition of not attempting to search their persons, the
woman of rank aforesaid, her female relations and female dependants, to
the number of three hundred, besides children, evacuated the said
castle; but the spirit of rapacity being excited by the letters and
other proceedings of the said Hastings, the capitulation was shamefully
and outrageously broken, and, in despite of the endeavors of the
commanding officer, the said woman of high condition, and her female
dependants, friends, and servants, were plundered of the effects they
carried with them, and which were reserved to them in the capitulation
of their fortress, and in their persons were otherwise rudely and
inhumanly dealt with by the licentious followers of the camp: for which
outrages, represented to the said Hastings with great concern by the
commanding officer, Major Popham, he, the said Hastings, did afterwards
recommend a late and fruitless redress.

XX. That the Governor-General, Warren Hastings, in exciting the hopes of
the military by declaring them _well entitled to the plunder_ of the
fortress aforesaid, the residence of the mother and other women of the
Rajah of Benares, and by wishing the troops to secure the same for their
own benefit, did advise