2nd ed., s.v.  ’Sumroo’), this execution took place on the evening of the day on which Le Vaisseau perished in 1795. (See post.) He adds that ’it is said that this act preyed upon her conscience in after life’.  This account professes to be based on Bacon’s First Impressions and Studies from Nature in Hindustan, which is said to be ’the most reliable, as the author saw the Begam, attended and conversed with her at one of her levees, and gained all his information at her Court’.  But Bacon’s account of the Begam’s history, as quoted by Higginbotham, is full of gross errors; and Sir William Sleeman may be relied on as giving the most accurate obtainable version of the horrid story.  He had the beat possible opportunities, as well as a desire, to ascertain the truth.

20.  Atkinson (N.W.P.  Gazetteer, vol. ii, p. 106) uses the spelling Le Vaisseau, which probably is correct, and observes that the name is also written Le Vassont.  The author writes Le Vassoult; and Francklin (Military Memoirs of Mr. George Thomas, London, 8vo reprint (Stockdale), p. 55) spells the name phonetically as Levasso.  ’On every occasion he was the declared and inveterate enemy of Mr. Thomas.’

21.  Thomas was an Irishman, born in the county of Tipperary.  ’From the best information we could procure, it appears that Mr. George Thomas first came to India in a British ship of war, in 1781-2.  His situation in the fleet was humble, having served as a quarter-master, or, as is affirmed by some, in the capacity of a common sailor. . . .  His first service was among the Polygars to the southward, where he resided a few years.  But at length setting out overland, he spiritedly traversed the central part of the peninsula, and about the year 1787 arrived at Delhi.  Here he received a commission in the service of the Begam Sumroo. . . .  Soon after his arrival at Delhi, the Begam, with her usual judgement and discrimination of character, advanced him to a command in her army.  From this period his military career in the north-west of India may be said to have commenced.’  Owing to the rivalry of Le Vaisseau, Thomas ’quitted the Begam Sumroo, and about 1792 betook himself to the frontier station of the British army at the post of Anopshire (Anupshahr). . . .  Here he waited several months. . . .  In the beginning of the year 1793, Mr. Thomas, being at Anopshire, received letters from Appakandarow (Apakanda Rao), a Mahratta chief, conveying offers of service, and promises of a comfortable provision.’ (Francklin, op. cit., p. 20.) The author states that Thomas left the Begam’s service in 1793, after her marriage with Le Vaisseau in that year.  Francklin (see also p. 55) was clearly under the impression that the marriage did not take place till after Thomas had thrown up his command under the Begam.  He made peace with her in 1795.  The capital of the principality which he carved out for himself in 1798 was at Hansi, eighty-nine miles north-west of Delhi.  He was driven out at the close of 1801, entered British territory in January 1802, and died on the 22nd of August in that year at Barhampur, being about forty-six years of age.  A son of his was an officer in the Begam’s service at the time of her death in 1836.  A great-granddaughter of George Thomas was, in 1867, the wife of a writer on a humble salary in one of the Government offices at Agra. (Beale.)