o
informs me it is well grounded,--that they _have sold everything they
had, even to the clothes from their backs, and now have no means of
subsisting_."

LIV. That the distresses of the said women grew so urgent on the night
of the said 6th of March, the day when the letter above recited was
written, that Captain Leonard Jaques aforesaid did think it necessary to
write again, on the day following, to the British Resident in the
following words. "I beg leave to address you again concerning the women
in the Khord Mohul [the lesser palace]. Their behavior last night was so
furious, that there seemed the greatest probability of their proceeding
to the uttermost extremities, and that they would either _throw
themselves from the walls or force open the doors of the zenanah_. I
have made every inquiry concerning the cause of their complaints, and
find from Letafit Ali Khan that they are in _a starving condition,
having sold all their clothes and necessaries, and now have not
wherewithal to support nature_; and as my instructions are quite silent
on this head, I should be glad to know how to proceed, in case they were
to force the doors of the zenanah, as I suspect it will happen, should
no subsistence be very quickly sent to them."

LV. That, in consequence of these representations, it appears that the
said Resident, Richard Johnson, did promise that an application should
be made to certain of the servants of the Nabob Vizier to provide for
their subsistence.

LVI. That Captain Jaques being relieved from the duty of imprisoning the
women of Sujah ul Dowlah, the late sovereign of Oude, an ally of the
Company, who dwelt in the said lesser palace, and Major Gilpin being
appointed to succeed, the same malicious design of destroying the said
women, or the same scandalous neglect of their preservation and
subsistence, did still continue; and Major Gilpin found it necessary to
apply to the new Resident, Bristow, in a letter of the 30th of October,
1782, as follows.

LVII. "SIR,--Last night, about eight o'clock, the women in the
Khord Mohul [lesser palace] or zenanah [women's apartment] under the
charge of Letafit Ali Khan, assembled on the tops of the buildings,
_crying in a most lamentable manner for food,--that for the last four
days they had got but a very scanty allowance, and that yesterday they
had got none_.

LVIII. "_The melancholy cries of famine are more easily imagined than
described_; and from their representation