ssue an order that they should be restored
accordingly; but his minister aforesaid, having before his eyes the
peremptory orders of him, the said Warren Hastings, did persuade his
master to dishonor himself in breaking his faith and engagement with his
mother and the mother of his father, by first evading the execution, and
afterwards totally revoking his said public and solemn act, on pretence
that he had agreed to the grant "from shame, being in their presence
[the presence of his mother and grandmother], and that it was
unavoidable at the time";[77]--the said minister declaring to him, that
it would be sufficient, if he allowed them "money for their _necessary_
expenses, and that would be _doing enough_."

LXXI. That the faith given for the restoration of their landed estates
being thus violated, and the money for necessary expenses being as ill
supplied as before, the women and children of the late sovereign, father
of the reigning prince, continued exposed to frequent want of the common
necessaries of life;[78] and being sorely pressed by famine, they were
compelled to break through all the principles of local decorum and
reserve which constitute the dignity of the female sex in that part of
the world, and, after great clamor and violent attempts for one whole
day to break the inclosure of the palace, and to force their way into
the public market, in order to move the compassion of the people, and to
beg their bread, they did, on the next day, actually proceed to the
extremity of exposing themselves to public view,--an extremity implying
the lowest state of disgrace and degradation, to avoid which many women
in India have laid violent hands upon themselves,--and they did proceed
to the public market-place with the starving children of the late
sovereign, and the brothers and sisters of the reigning prince! A minute
account of the transaction aforesaid was written to the British Resident
at Lucknow by the person appointed to convey intelligence to him from
Fyzabad, in the following particulars, highly disgraceful to the honor,
justice, and humanity of this nation.

LXXII. "The ladies, their attendants and servants, were still as
clamorous as last night. Letafit, the _darogah_, went to them and
remonstrated with them on the impropriety of their conduct, at the same
time assuring them that in a few days all their allowances would be
paid, and should not that be the case, he would advance them ten days'
subsistence, u