payment,
and disband a force so disorderly, and so little likely to be of any
use to him or the Emperor.' A council of war was held--the Begam was
taken out from under the gun, and reseated on the 'masnad'. A paper
was drawn up by about thirty European officers, of whom only one,
Monsieur Saleur, could sign his own name, swearing in the name of God
and Jesus Christ,[31] that they would henceforward obey her with all
their hearts and souls, and recognize no other person whomsoever as
commander. They all affixed their seals to this _covenant_; but some
of them, to show their superior learning, put their initials, or what
they used as such, for some of these _learned Thebans_ knew only two
or three letters of the alphabet, which they put down, though they
happened not to be their real initials. An officer on the part of
Sindhia, who was to have commanded these troops, was present at this
reinstallation of the Begam, and glad to take, as a compensation for
his disappointment, the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand rupees,
which the Begam contrived to borrow for him.

The body of poor Le Vaisseau was brought back to camp, and there lay
several days unburied, and exposed to all kinds of indignities. The
supposition that this was the result of a plan formed by the Begam to
get rid of Le Vaisseau is, I believe, unfounded.[32] The Begam
herself gave some colour of truth to the report by retaining the name
of her first husband, Sombre, to the last, and never publicly or
formally declaring her marriage with Le Vaisseau after his death. The
troops in this mutiny pretended nothing more than a desire to
vindicate the honour of their old commander Sombre, which had, they
said, been compromised by the illicit intercourse between Le Vaisseau
and his widow. She had not dared to declare the marriage to them lest
they should mutiny on that ground, and deprive her of the command;
and for the same reason she retained the name of Sombre after her
restoration, and remained silent on the subject of her second
marriage. The marriage was known only to a few European officers. Sir
John Shore, Major Palmer, and the other gentlemen with whom Le
Vaisseau corresponded. Some grave old native gentlemen who were long
in her service have told me that they believed 'there really was too
much of truth in the story which excited the troops to mutiny on that
occasion--her too great intimacy with the gallant young Frenchman.
God forgive them for saying so