ordered. The carriage was English built—a
very handsome landau—and the horses were
English horses; but the harness! It was
country-made, of the very commonest kind,
and worn out; for one of the traces was a
piece of rope. The coachman was filthy in
his dress, and the whip that he carried in his
hand was an old broken buggy-whip, which
some European gentleman must have thrown
away. On the box, on either side of the
coachman, sat a warlike retainer, armed
with a sword and a dagger. In the rumble
were two other retainers armed in the same
manner. Besides the Rajah and myself there
were three others (natives and relatives of
the Rajah) in the vehicle. On the road the
Rajah talked incessantly, and amongst other
things that he told me was this—in reference
to the praises that I bestowed on his equipage:

"Not long ago I had a carriage and horses
very superior to these. They cost me twenty-five
thousand rupees; but I had to burn the
carriage and kill the horses."

"Why so?"

"The child of a certain Sahib in Cawnpore
was very sick, and the Sahib and the
Memsahib were bringing the child to Bhitoor for
a change of air. I sent my big carriage for
them. On the road the child died; and, of
course, as a dead body had been in the
carriage, and as the horses had drawn that
dead body in that carriage, I could never use
them again." The reader must understand
that a native of any rank considers it a
disgrace to sell property.

"But could you not have given the horses
to some friend—a Christian or a Mussulman?"

"No; had I done so, it might have come
to the knowledge of the Sahib, and his feelings
would have been hurt at having occasioned
me such a loss."

Such was the Maharajah, commonly known
as Nena Sahib. He appeared to be not a
man of ability, nor a fool. He was selfish,
but what native is not? He seemed to be
far from a bigot in matters of religion; and,
although he was compelled to be so very
particular about the destruction of his
carriage and horses, I am quite satisfied that he
drank brandy, and that he smoked hemp in
the chillum of his hookah.

It was half-past five o'clock when we
arrived at Cawnpore. The officers, civil and
military, and their wives, were just coming
out for their evening drive on the mall.
Some were in carriages, some in buggies,
some on horseback. Every soul saluted the
Maharajah; who returned the salute according
to Eastern fashion—raising the hands to the
forehead. Several gentlemen approached the
carriage when it was drawn up near the
band-stand, and inquired after the
Maharajah's health. He replied that it was good;
and then introduced me to them in the
following manner, and in strict accordance
with the letter he had received from Lucknow:
"This Sahib who sits near me is a
great friend of the Governor-General, and is
a relation of all the members of Council—a
constant guest of the Queen of England"
(then came this addition of his own) "and of
both Houses of Parliament." I need scarcely
say that I wished my Lucknow friends had
not covered me with such recommendations;
for, wherever we went, and to whomsoever we
spoke—no matter whether it was an European
shopkeeper or an official magnate of
Cawnpore—I was doomed to hear, "This
Sahib who sits (or stands) near me is a great
friend," &c. &c. Having exhibited me
sufficiently in Cawnpore, the heads of the horses
were turned towards Bhitoor, and we were
dragged along the road at a slow pace, for
the animals were extremely fatigued. The
natives of India have no mercy on their
cattle, especially their horses. During the
ride back, I was again bored with the Rajah's
grievance; and, to quiet him—for he became
very much excited—I was induced to promise
that I would talk to the Governor-General
and the Council on the subject; and
that if I did not succeed in that quarter, I
would, on my return to England, take the
earliest opportunity "some day, quietly, after
dinner" (this was his suggestion), of
representing to her Majesty the exact state of the
case, and that an adopted son of a Hindoo
was entitled to all the rights and privileges
of an heir born of the body. I furthermore
promised him most solemnly that I would
not speak to the Board of Control, or to the
Privy Council on the subject; for, the
Maharajah assured me that he had the most
positive proof that both these institutions
had eaten bribes from the hand of the East
India Company in respect of his claim. On
probing him, however, I discovered that his
positive proof was a letter from a villainous
agent in England, who had written to him to
say that "the Company had bribed the Board
of Control and the Privy Council, and that if
his Highness expected to succeed, he must
bribe over the head of the Company. Three
lacs (thirty thousand pounds) would do it
all."

The Maharajah gave a nautch (native
dance by women) that night.

On the following morning I awoke with a
very bad head-ache, and in a philosophic
mood. The various perfumes which had been
sprinkled over my dress had somewhat
overpowered me, and it may have been that the
story told me in whispers by one of the three
slaves who came to sing me to sleep had
disordered my imagination. I was told that
two women of rank were kept in a den not
far from my apartments, and treated like wild
beasts; and a third—a beautiful young
creature—had recently been "bricked up in
a wall," for no other fault than attempting
to escape.

After breakfast, the Rajah showed me his