XXIII. That, in conformity to the said peremptory orders, a party of British and other troops, with the Nabob in the ostensible, and the British Resident in the real command, were drawn towards the city of Fyzabad, in the castle of which city the mother and grandmother of the Nabob had their residence; and after expending two days in negotiation, (the particulars of which do not appear,) the Resident not receiving the satisfaction he looked for, the town was first stormed, and afterwards the castle; and little or no resistance being made, and no blood being shed on either side, the British troops occupied all the outer inclosure of the palace of one of the princesses, and blocked up the other.[62]

XXIV. That this violent assault, and forcible occupation of their houses, and the further extremities they had to apprehend, did not prevail on the female parents of the Nabob to consent to any submission, until the Resident sent in unto them a letter from the said Warren Hastings,[63] (no copy of which appears,) declaring himself no longer bound by the guaranty, and containing such other matter as tended to remove all their hopes, which seemed to be centred in British faith.

XXV. That the chief officers of their household, who were their treasurers and confidential agents, the eunuchs Jewar Ali Khân and Behar Ali Khân, persons of great eminence, rank, and distinction, who had been in high trust and favor with the late Nabob, were ignominiously put into confinement under an inferior officer, in order to extort the discovery of the treasures and effects committed to their care and fidelity. And the said Middleton did soon after, that is to say, on the 12th of January, 1782, deliver them over for the same purpose into the custody of Captain Neal Stuart, commanding the eighth regiment, by his order given in the following words: "To be kept in close and secure confinement, admitting of no intercourse with them, excepting by their four menial servants, who are authorized to attend them until further orders. You will allow them to have any necessary and convenience which may be consistent with a strict guard over them."

XXVI. That, in consequence of these severities upon herself, and on those whom she most regarded and trusted, the mother of the said Nabob did at length consent to the delivering up of her treasures, and the same were paid to the Resident, to the amount of the bond given by the Nabob to the Company for his balance of the year 1779-80; and the said treasure "was taken from the most secret recesses in the houses of the two eunuchs."

XXVII. That the Nabob continuing still under the pressure of a further pretended debt to the Company for his balance of the year 1780-81, the Resident, not satisfied with the seizure of the estates and treasures of his parents aforesaid, although he, the said Resident, did confess that the princess mother "had declared, with apparent truth, that she had delivered up the whole of the property in her hands, excepting goods which from the experience which he, the Resident, had of the small produce of the sales of a former payment made by her in that mode he did refuse, and that in his opinion it certainly would have amounted to little or nothing," did proceed to extort another great sum of money, that is to say, the sum of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds sterling, on account of the last pretended balance aforesaid: in order, therefore, to compel the said ministers and treasurers either to distress their principals by extorting whatever valuable substance might by any possibility remain concealed, or to furnish the said sum from their own estates or from their credit with their friends, did order their imprisonment to be aggravated with circumstances of great cruelty, giving an order to Lieutenant Francis Rutledge, dated 20th January, 1782, in the following words.

XXVIII. "SIR,—When this note is delivered to you by Hoolas Roy, I have to desire that you order the two prisoners to be put in irons, keeping them from all food, &c., agreeable to my instructions of yesterday.

(Signed) "NATHL MIDDLETON."

XXIX. That by the said unjust and rigorous proceeding the said eunuchs were compelled to give their engagement for the payment of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds sterling aforesaid, to be completed within the period of one month; but after they had entered into the said compulsory engagement, they were still kept in close imprisonment, and the mother and grandmother of the Nabob were themselves held under a strict guard,—although, at the same time, the confiscated estates were actually in the Company's possession, and found to exceed the amount of what they were rated at in the general list of confiscated estates,[64] and although the Assistant Resident, Johnson, did confess, "that the object of distressing the Bhow Begum was merely to obtain a ready-money instead of a dilatory payment, and that this ready-money payment, if not paid, was recoverable in the course of a few months upon the jaghires in his possession, and that therefore it was not worth proceeding to any extremities, beyond the one described," (namely, the confinement of the princesses, and the imprisonment and fettering of their ministers,) "upon so respectable a family."[65]

XXX. That, after the surrender of the treasure, and the passing the bonds and obligations given as aforesaid, the Resident having been strictly ordered by the said Warren Hastings not to make any settlement whatsoever with the said women of high rank, the Nabob was induced to leave the city of Fyzabad without taking leave of his mother, or showing her any mark of duty or civility. And on the same day the Resident left the city aforesaid; and after his return to Lucknow, in order to pacify the said Hastings, who appeared to resent that the Nabob was not urged to greater degrees of rigor than those hitherto used towards his mother, he, the said Resident, did, in his letter of the 6th February, give him an assurance in the following words:—"I shall, as you direct, use my influence to dissuade his Excellency from concluding any settlement until I have your further commands."

XXXI. That the payment of the bond last extorted from the eunuchs was soon after commenced, and the grandmother, as well as the mother, were now compelled to deliver what they declared was the extent of the whole of both their possessions, including down to their table utensils; which, as the Resident admitted, "they had been and were still delivering, and that no proof had yet been obtained of their having more."