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,