were wounded. They were allowed their option, either
to return to their homes, or remain in the town. The greater part of
them availed themselves of the former offer; and, having been deprived
of their arms, they went off to join their families, and bear the sad
tidings to many an anxious wife of her husband's death, and to many a
fond mother the bitter news of her son having been shot.

Having arranged everything for the protection of the property, I was
appointed a prize agent for head-quarters, and we immediately commenced
collecting the property to one spot. My first care was to put double
sentinels on the entrance to the zenanah, till I could, with the other
two prize-agents, search that place; but, as they were busy in another
place, I took a peep at my double sentinels, and found one of them had
left his post, and gone inside. I met him coming towards me with two
large boxes, about two feet by three. I asked him what he had got there,
and he said that they contained nothing but paun. I told him to give
them to me. He did so, and I found them of an enormous weight. They
contained, in fact, the whole of the jewellery of the zenanah. In the
verandah were large bales of shawls and silks, sewn together like
quilts, and in an inner room was the family of the keeledar, consisting
of his wife and two daughters, who, on beholding me, threw themselves at
my feet, and begged for mercy in the most beseeching manner.

I could as soon have laid the finger of harm on the author of my being;
indeed, the duties of my present situation were repugnant and
uncongenial to my feelings; but, whatever situation I was appointed to,
or intrusted with, I always made it my primary object to fulfil the
several branches of it in the most rigid manner, consistent with the
rules of the service and usages of war; and, therefore, the more
sympathetic feelings were absorbed in those of duty. I, however,
consoled these poor weeping creatures with the full assurance of their
safety and protection against harm or pollution, of which they expressed
the most dreadful fears. This privileged right of war, so esteemed by
the native powers, has in no instance ever stained the victorious
banners of the East India Company; but these females had wrought their
anguished minds on this subject to a pitch of frenzy and distraction,
and all I could do and say could not drive from their fear-distorted
features the evident dread under which they laboured. When, at