ants,
Mussulmen and Hindoos, upon oath," and that, if any balance should
afterwards appear, they would upon their release get their friends to
advance the same; and they did again represent the hardship of their
imprisonment, and pray for relief; and did again assert that the
imputations thrown upon them by the said Richard Johnson were false and
groundless,--"that they had no kind of intercourse, either directly or
indirectly, with the authors of the commotions alluded to, and that they
did stake their lives upon the smallest proof thereof being brought."

XXXVI. That, instead of their receiving any answer to any of the
aforesaid reasonable propositions, concerning either the account stated,
or the crimes imputed to them, or any relief from the hardships they
suffered, he, the Resident, Middleton, did, on the 18th of the said
month, give to the officer who had supplicated in favor of the said
prisoners an order in which he declared himself "under the disagreeable
necessity of recurring to severities to enforce the said payment, and
that this is therefore to desire that you immediately cause them _to be
put in irons_, and keep them so until I shall arrive at Fyzabad to take
further measures as may be necessary": which order being received at
Fyzabad the day after it was given, the said eunuchs were a second time
thrown into irons. And it appears that (probably in resentment for the
humane representations of the said Captain Jaques) the Resident did
refuse to pay for the fetters, and other contingent charges of the
imprisonment of the said ministers of the Nabob's mother, when at the
same time very liberal contingent allowances were made to other
officers; and the said Jaques did strongly remonstrate against the same
as follows. "You have also ordered me to put the prisoners in irons:
this I have done; yet, as I have no business to purchase fetters, or
supply them any other way, it is but reasonable that you should order me
to be reimbursed. And why should I add anything more? A late commander
at this place, I am told, draws near as many thousands monthly
contingencies as my trifling letter for hundreds. However, if you cannot
get my bill paid, be so obliging as to return it, and give me an
opportunity of declaring to the world that I believe I am the first
officer in the Company's service who has suffered in his property by an
independent command."

XXXVI. That, in about two months after the said prisoners had continue