LIV.  That the distresses of the said women grew so urgent on the night of the said 6th of March, the day when the letter above recited was written, that Captain Leonard Jaques aforesaid did think it necessary to write again, on the day following, to the British Resident in the following words.  “I beg leave to address you again concerning the women in the Khord Mohul [the lesser palace].  Their behavior last night was so furious, that there seemed the greatest probability of their proceeding to the uttermost extremities, and that they would either throw themselves from the walls or force open the doors of the zenanah.  I have made every inquiry concerning the cause of their complaints, and find from Letafit Ali Khan that they are in a starving condition, having sold all their clothes and necessaries, and now have not wherewithal to support nature; and as my instructions are quite silent on this head, I should be glad to know how to proceed, in case they were to force the doors of the zenanah, as I suspect it will happen, should no subsistence be very quickly sent to them.”

LV.  That, in consequence of these representations, it appears that the said Resident, Richard Johnson, did promise that an application should be made to certain of the servants of the Nabob Vizier to provide for their subsistence.

LVI.  That Captain Jaques being relieved from the duty of imprisoning the women of Sujah ul Dowlah, the late sovereign of Oude, an ally of the Company, who dwelt in the said lesser palace, and Major Gilpin being appointed to succeed, the same malicious design of destroying the said women, or the same scandalous neglect of their preservation and subsistence, did still continue; and Major Gilpin found it necessary to apply to the new Resident, Bristow, in a letter of the 30th of October, 1782, as follows.

LVII.  “SIR,—­Last night, about eight o’clock, the women in the Khord Mohul [lesser palace] or zenanah [women’s apartment] under the charge of Letafit Ali Khan, assembled on the tops of the buildings, crying in a most lamentable manner for food,—­that for the last four days they had got but a very scanty allowance, and that yesterday they had got none.

LVIII. “The melancholy cries of famine are more easily imagined than described; and from their representation I fear the Nabob’s agents for that business are very inattentive.  I therefore think it requisite to make you acquainted with the circumstance, that his Excellency, the Nabob, may cause his agents to be more circumspect in their conduct towards these poor unhappy women.”