ce by all the Europeans and natives that composed it, as the only
possible mode of keeping them together, since the son was known to be
altogether unfit. She consented, and was regularly installed in the
charge by the Emperor Shah Alam. Her chief officer was a Mr. Paoli, a
German, who soon after took an active part in providing the poor
imbecile old Emperor with a prime minister, and got himself
assassinated on the restoration, a few weeks after, of his rival.[17]
The troops continued in the same state of insubordination, and the
Begam was anxious for an opportunity to show that she was determined
to be obeyed.

While she was encamped with the army of the prime minister of the
time at Mathura,[18] news was one day brought to her that two slave
girls had set fire to her houses at Agra, in order that they might
make off with their paramours, two soldiers of the guard she had left
in charge. These houses had thatched roofs, and contained all her
valuables, and the widows, wives, and children of her principal
officers. The fire had been put out with much difficulty and great
loss of property; and the two slave girls were soon after discovered
in the bazaar at Agra, and brought out to the Begam's camp. She had
the affair investigated in the usual summary form; and their guilt
being proved to the satisfaction of all present, she had them flogged
till they were senseless, and then thrown into a pit dug in front of
her tent for the purpose, and buried alive. I had heard the story
related in different ways, and I now took pains to ascertain the
truth; and this short narrative may, I believe, be relied upon.[19]

An old Persian merchant, called the Aga, still resided at Sardhana,
to whom I knew that one of the slave girls belonged. I visited him,
and he told me that his father had been on intimate terms with
Sombre, and when he died his mother went to live with his widow, the
Begam--that his slave girl was one of the two-that his mother at
first protested against her being taken off to the camp, but became
on inquiry satisfied of her guilt--and that the Begam's object was to
make a strong impression upon the turbulent spirit of her troops by a
severe example. 'In this object', said the old Aga, 'she entirely
succeeded; and for some years after her orders were implicitly
obeyed; had she faltered on that occasion she must have lost the
command--she would have lost that respect, without which it would
have been impossible for her