I am fatigued with my ride through the sun; nevertheless, I will go out on an elephant this evening, and view all the old part of the city. I like this barā sāhib life; this living en prince; in a climate so fine as this is at present it is delightful.
The subjects of his Majesty of Oude are by no means desirous of participating in the blessings of British rule. They are a richer, sleeker, and merrier race than the natives in the territories of the Company.
What a delightful companion is this Colonel Gardner! I have had the most interesting conversation with him, which has been interrupted by his being obliged to attend his poor sick wife, as he calls the begam. She is very ill, and her mind is as much affected as her body: he cannot persuade her to call in the aid of medicine. A short time ago, she lost her son, Allan Gardner, aged twenty-nine years: then she lost a daughter and a grandson; afterwards a favourite daughter; and now another young grandson is dangerously ill. These misfortunes have broken her spirit, and she refuses all medical aid. That dear old man has made me weep like a child. I could not bear the recital of his sorrows and sufferings. He said, “You often see me talking and apparently cheerful at the Resident’s table, when my heart is bleeding.”
We have had a long conversation respecting his own life, and I have been trying to persuade him to write it. He says, “If I were to write it, you would scarcely believe it; it would appear fiction.” He is gone to the sick begam. How I long for another tête à tête, in the hope of learning his private history!
He must have been, and is, very handsome; such a high caste man! How he came to marry the begam I know not. What a romance his love must have been! I wish I had his portrait, just as he now appears, so dignified and interesting. His partiality flatters me greatly.
CHAPTER XVIII.
REVELATIONS OF LIFE IN THE ZENĀNA.
1831.—Pedigree of the Kings of Oude—Lucnow Mohurs—Anniversary of the Coronation—The Prime Minister—Khema-jah—Feredooa Buckht—Evil omens—Mossem-ood-Dowla—Largesse—Hārs, Pān, and Atr—The Zenāna—Sultana Boa—Mulka Zumanee—Gosseina—Tajmahŭl—Plurality of wives.
Saadut Khan, known at first under the name of Meer Muhammad Ameen, descended in a direct line from the Imām Mousa Kasim, of the family of Ali, esteemed in Persia as of the highest and most noble extraction. During the civil wars, he quitted Khorasān, his native province, and repaired to Lahore, where he took the name of Saadut Khan. On the accession of Mahmud Shāh, he was created a noble of the empire, and Soobadar of Oude, with the titles of “Pillar of the empire, confident support of the state, Meer Muhammad Ameen Khan, the Glory of War.”
Fortune having proved favourable, he sent for his only sister, the widow of a nobleman, Jaafer Beg, and her two sons, and bestowed his only daughter in marriage on the elder brother, the young Nawāb Munsoor Ulee Khan, commonly called Sefdar Jung, who on the death of his uncle was confirmed by the king in his government of Oude. He died in 1756, leaving Soojah-ood-Dowla his son and successor.