"So, you are Ameer Ali, Jemadar," said he, "and at last you are in my power; know you aught of the accusations against you, and wherefore you are here? Read them," he continued to an attendant Moonshee, "read the list which has been drawn up; yonder villain looks as though he would deny them."
The man unfolded a roll of paper written in Persian, and read a catalogue of crime, of murders, every one of which I knew to be true; a faithful record it was of my past life, with but few omissions. Alla defend me! thought I, there is no hope; yet still I put a bold face on the matter.
"The proof, Sahib Bahadur," said I; "you English are praised for your justice, and long as that list is of crimes I never before heard of, you will not deny me a fair hearing and the justice you give to thousands."
"Surely not; whatever your crimes may be, do not fear that your case shall be inquired into. Call the approvers," said he to an attendant; "bring them in one by one, and the Jemadar shall hear what they have told me about him."
The first man who entered was an old associate of mine in former days, before my misfortunes commenced: he had been with me in the expedition just before my father had been put to death by the Rajah of Jhalone, which I have minutely described to you; and he related the whole, from the murder of the Moonshee and his child, down to the last event, the destruction of the pearl-merchant. His story took a long time in relating; and the whole was so fresh in my recollection, and he was so exact and true in its details, that I could not answer a word, nor put a single question to shake his testimony. In conclusion, he referred the officer to the Rajah of Jhalone for corroboration of the whole, and he appealed to me to declare whether aught he had said was false. "Not only," said he, "do you know, Meer Sahib, that it is all true, but there are others as well as myself who can speak to these facts; and know, moreover, that many graves have been opened, and the remains of your victims have been disinterred."
"Say yours as well as mine," I replied, thrown completely off my guard at last, and nettled by the emphasis he had placed on the words "your victims." "You had as much to do with them as myself; besides, did you not aid that villain Ganesha when I would have saved the child of the Moonshee?"
"He has confessed!" cried many voices.
"Silence!" said the officer; "let no one dare to speak. Do you know, Ameer Ali, what you have said? Are you aware that you have admitted you are a Thug?"
"It is useless now to attempt to recall my words," said I, doggedly; "make the most of them, for after this you shall wring no more from me—no, not by the most horrible tortures you can inflict."
The examination, however, proceeded. Others were brought forward who had known me, or been connected with me, in Thuggee, and at last those who had earned the reward of the government by betraying me. They had been associated with me for the last two years, and they related what I had done, and where the bodies of the murdered were lying. After this was finished, and all the depositions recorded, I was remanded to prison; and the better to secure me, I was not only loaded with irons, but confined in a cell by myself.