They continued resolutely to threaten instant death to the minister should any one but the Resident or his Assistant presume to enter the open space in which he lay. Many thousands of reckless and desperate characters filled the street, ready to commence a tumult, for the plunder of the city, the moment that the minister or the assassins should be killed, while the relations and dependents of the minister, with loud cries, offered lacs of rupees to the assassins if they spared his life, so as to encourage them to hold out. They at last collected and brought to the spot, on three or four elephants, the fifty thousand rupees demanded by the assassins, and offered them to his assailants apparently with his concurrence; and the four ruffians, having assented to the terms offered by the Resident, permitted Doctor Login, the Residency Surgeon, to approach the prostrate minister and dress his wounds. One of the assassins, however, continued to kneel by his side with his naked dagger resting on his breast till he saw the other three seated upon the elephants, on which the money was placed, with the understanding, that the guard of sipahees, which the Resident had brought with him, should escort them to the Residency, and that Captain Bird, the Assistant, should accompany them. The fourth man then quitted his hold on the minister, who had become very faint, and climbed upon Captain Bird's elephant and took seat behind him. Captain Bird, however, made him get off, and mount another elephant with his companions. The crowd shouted shah bash, shah bash!—well done, well done! and they attempted to scatter some of the money from the elephants among them, but were prevented by Captain Bird, who dreaded the consequences in such a tumult. They were all four taken to the Residency under the guard of sipahees, and accommodated in one of the lower rooms of the office; and a guard was placed over the money with orders to keep back the crowd of spectators, which was very great. Three of the four ruffians had been wounded by the minister's attendants before they could secure his person, and their wounds were now dressed by Doctor Login.
It was now ten o'clock, and at twelve the Resident had an interview with the King, who had become much alarmed, not only for the safety of the minister, but for that of the city, threatened by the thousands of bad characters, anxious for an occasion of pillage; and he expressed an anxious wish that the assassins should be made over to him for trial. But the Resident pleaded the solemn promise which he had made, and his Majesty admitted the necessity of the promise under the circumstances, and that of keeping it; but said that he would have the whole affair carefully investigated. As soon as the Resident left him, he sent a company of sipahees with fetters to the Residency to receive charge of the prisoners, but the Resident would not give them up. The King then wrote a letter to the Resident with his own hand, requesting that the prisoners might be surrendered to him. The Resident, in his reply to His Majesty's, letter, told him, that he could not so far violate the promise he had given, but that he would send them to answer any other charges that might be brought against them, in any open and impartial Court that might be appointed to try them; and if they should be found guilty of other crimes, His Majesty might order any sentence passed upon them, short of death, to be carried into execution.
Charges of many successful attempts of the same kind, and many atrocious murders perpetrated by the ruffians, in distant districts of Oude, were preferred against them; and they were prevailed upon to give up their arms, and to submit to a fair and open trial, on the other charges preferred against them, on condition that they should neither be put to death nor in any way maimed, or put in fetters, or subjected to ill-treatment before trial and conviction. The Resident offered them the alternative of doing this or leaving the Residency, after he had read to them the King's letter, and told them, that his promise extended only to saving their lives and escorting them to the Residency; and, that he would not be answerable for their lives beyond the court-yard of the Residency, if they refused the conditions now offered. They knew that their lives would not be safe for a moment after they got beyond the court-yard, and submitted. Their arms and the fifty thousand rupees were sent to the King. At four in the afternoon, the four prisoners were made over to the King's wakeel, on a solemn promise given under the express sanction of his Majesty, of safe conduct through the streets, of freedom from fetters, or any kind of ill-treatment before conviction, and of fair and open trial.
But they had not gone two paces from the Residency court-yard, when they were set upon by the very people sent by the King to take care of them on the way; the King's wakeel having got into his palkee and gone on before them towards the palace. They were beaten with whips, sticks, and the hilts of swords, till one of the four fell down insensible, and the other three were reduced to a pitiable condition. The Resident took measures to protect them from further violence, recalled the wakeel; and, after admonishing him for his dishonourable conduct, had the prisoners taken unfettered to a convenient house near the prison. The wounded minister wrote to the King, earnestly praying that the prisoners might not suffer any kind of ill-treatment before conviction, after a fair and impartial trial. The Resident reported to Government all that had occurred, and stated, that he should see that the promises made to the prisoners were fulfilled, that, should they be convicted before the Court appointed to conduct the trial, of other crimes perpetrated before this assault on the minister, they would be subject to such punishment as the Mahommedan law prescribed for such crimes. Three of them, Tuffuzzul Hoseyn, Hyder Khan, and Fuzl Allee, were convicted, on their own confessions, and the testimony of their own relations, of many cold blooded murders, and successful attempts to extort money from respectable and wealthy persons in different parts of Oude, similar to this on the minister, and all four were sentenced to imprisonment for life. The Government of India had insisted on their not being executed or mutilated. Fuzl Allee, as above stated, broke jail, and is still at large at his old trade, and Hyder Khan is still in prison at Lucknow.
These ruffians appear to have been encouraged, in this assault upon the minister, for the purpose of extorting money, by a similar but more successful attempt made in the year 1824, by a party headed by a person named Syud Mahomed Eesa Meean, alias Eesa Meean.
This person came to Lucknow with a letter of recommendation from Captain Gough. He delivered it in person to the Resident, but was never after seen or heard of by him till this affair occurred. He became a kind of saint, or apostle, at Lucknow; and Fakeer Mahomed Khan Rusaldar, who commanded a corps of Cavalry, and had much influence over the minister, Aga Meer, became one of his disciples, and prevailed upon the minister to entertain him as a mosahib, or aide-de-camp. He soon became a favourite with Aga Meer, and formed a liaison with a dancing-girl, named Beeba Jan. His conduct towards her soon became too violent and overbearing, and she sought shelter with the Khasmahal, or chief consort, of the minister, who promised her protection, and detained her in her apartments. Eesa Meean appealed to the minister, and demanded her surrender. The minister told him that she was mistress of her own actions, as she had never gone through the ceremonies of permanent marriage, or nikkah, nor even those of a temporary one, motah; and most be considered as altogether free to choose her own lovers or mode of life.
He then appealed to Moulavee Karamut Allee, the tutor of Aga Meer's children, but was told, that he could not interfere, as the female was a mere acquaintance of his, and bound to him by no legal ties whatever; and must, therefore, be considered as free to reside where and with whom she chose. Eesa Meean then took his resolution, and prevailed upon some fifteen of the loose and desperate characters who always swarm at Lucknow, to aid him in carrying it out. On the 2nd of June 1824, Karamut Allee, the tutor, was bathing, and Aga Meer's two eldest sons, Aga Allee, aged eleven, and Nizam-od Dowlah, aged six years were reading their lessons in the school-room, under the deputy-tutor, Moulavee Ameen Allee. It was early in the morning, but the minister had gone out to wait upon the King. Eesa Meean entered the school-room, and approached the children with the usual courtesy and compliments, followed by six armed men, and one table attendant, or khidmutgar.
The two boys were sitting beside each other, the eldest, Aga Allee, on the left, and the youngest, Nizam-od Dowla, on the right. Eesa Meean sat down on the left side of the eldest, and congratulated both on the rapid progress they were making in their studies. Three of his followers, while he was doing this, placed themselves on the left of the eldest, and the other three on the right of the youngest. On a concerted signal all drew forth and cocked their pistols, and placed themselves at the only three doors that opened from the school-room, two at each, while at a signal made by the khidmutgar, eight more men came in armed in the same manner. Two of them with naked daggers in their right hands seized the two boys with their left, and threatened them with instant death if they attempted to more or call for help. The other six threatened to kill any one who should attempt to force his way into the apartment. The khidmutgar, in the mean time, seized and brought into the room two large gharahs or pitchers of drinking water, that stood outside, as the weather was very hot, and the party would require it They were afraid that poison might be put into the water if left outside after they had commenced the assault. Eesa Meean then declared, that he had been driven to this violent act by the detention of his girl by the Khasmahal, and must have her instantly surrendered, or they would put the boys to death. Hearing the noise from his bathing-room, their tutor, Karamut Allee, rushed into the room with nothing on his person but his waist-band, and began to admonish the ruffians. Seeing him unarmed, and respecting his peaceful character, they let him pass in and vociferate, but paid no regard to what he said.
The alarm had spread through the house and town, and many of the chief officers of the Court were permitted to enter the room unarmed. Roshun-od Dowlah, Sobhan Allee Khan, Fakeer Mahomed Khan, Nuzee Allee Khan, (the Khasmahul's son-in-law,) and others of equal rank, all in loud terms admonished the assailants, and demanded the surrender of the children, but all were alike unheeded. The chief merchant of Lucknow, Sa Gobind Lal, came in; and thinking that all affairs could and ought to be settled in a business-like way, told the chief officers to fix the sum to be given, and he would at once pledge himself to the payment. All agreed to this, and Sobhan Allee Khan, the Chief Secretary of the minister, set to work and drew up a long and eloquent paper of conditions. On his beginning to read it, one of the ruffians, who had one eye, rushed in, snatched it from his hand, tore it to pieces, and threw the fragments into his chief's, Eesa Meean's, face, saying, "that this fellow would write them all out of their lives, as he was writing the people of Oude every day out of their properties; that if they must die, it should not be by pen and paper, but by swords and daggers in a fair fight; that all their lives had been staked, and all should die or live together." He was overpowered by the others, and other papers were drawn up by the ready writer and consummate knave Sobhan Allee, but the one-eyed man contrived to get hold of all, one after the other, and tear them up.
The minister was with the King when he first heard of the affair, and he went off forthwith to the Resident, Mr. Ricketts, to say, that his Majesty had in vain endeavoured to rescue the boys through his principal civil officers, and had sent all his available troops, but in vain; and now earnestly entreated the British Resident to interpose and save their lives. The Resident consented to do so, on condition that any arrangement he might find it necessary to make should be binding on his Majesty and the minister. Aga Meer returned to the King with this message, and his Majesty agreed to this condition. The Resident then sent his head moonshie, Gholam Hossein, to promise Eesa Meean, that the woman should be restored to him, and any grievance he might have to complain of should be redressed, and his party all saved, if he gave up the children. But he and his followers now demanded a large sum of money, and declared, that they would murder the boys unless it was given and secured to them, with a pledge for personal security to the whole party.