by European officers, after he had been recognized as a general officer by the Governor-General of India.  George Thomas had latterly twelve small disciplined battalions officered by Europeans.  He had good artillery, cast his own guns, and was the first person that applied iron calibres to brass cannon.  He was unquestionably a man of very extraordinary military genius, and his ferocity and recklessness as to the means he used were quite in keeping with the times.  His revenues were derived from the Sikh states which he had rendered tributary; and he would probably have been sovereign of them all in the room of Ranjit Singh, had not the jealousy of Perron and other French officers in the Maratha army interposed.[23]

The Begam tried in vain to persuade her husband to receive all the European officers of the corps at his table as gentlemen, urging that not only their domestic peace, but their safety among such a turbulent set, required that the character of these officers should be raised if possible, and their feelings conciliated.  Nothing, he declared, should ever induce him to sit at table with men of such habits; and they at last determined that no man should command them who would not condescend to do so.  Their insolence and that of the soldiers generally became at last unbearable, and the Begam determined to go off with her husband, and seek an asylum in the Honourable Company’s territory with the little property she could command, of one hundred thousand rupees in money, and her jewels, amounting perhaps in value to one hundred thousand more.  Le Vaisseau did not understand English; but with the aid of a grammar and a dictionary he was able to communicate her wishes to Colonel McGowan, who commanded at that time (1795) an advanced post of our army at Anupshahr on the Ganges.[24] He proposed that the Colonel should receive them in his cantonments, and assist them in their journey thence to Farrukhabad, where they wished in future to reside, free from the cares and anxieties of such a charge.  The Colonel had some scruples, under the impression that he might be censured for aiding in the flight of a public officer of the Emperor.  He now addressed the Governor-General of India, Sir John Shore himself, April 1795,[25] who requested Major Palmer, our accredited agent with Sindhia, who was then encamped near Delhi, and holding the seals of prime minister of the empire, to interpose his good offices in favour of the Begam and her husband.  Sindhia demanded twelve lakhs of rupees as the price of the privilege she solicited to retire; and the Begam, in her turn, demanded over and above the privilege of resigning the command into his hands, the sum of four lakhs of rupees as the price of the arms and accoutrements which had been provided at her own cost and that of her late husband.  It was at last settled that she should resign the command, and set out secretly with her husband; and that Sindhia should confer the command of her troops upon one of his own officers,