LIX.  That, although the Resident, Bristol, did not then think himself authorized to remove the guard, he did apply to the minister of the Nabob, who did promise some relief to the women of the late Nabob, confined in the lesser palace; but apprehending, with reason, that the minister aforesaid might not be more ready or active in making the necessary provision for them than on former occasions, he did render himself personally responsible to Major Gilpin for the repayment of any sum, equal to one thousand pounds sterling, which he might procure for the subsistence of the sufferers.  But whatever relief was given, (the amount thereof not appearing,) the same was soon exhausted; and the number of persons to be maintained in the said lesser palace being eight hundred women, the women of the late sovereign, Sujah ul Dowlah, and several of the younger children of the said sovereign prince, besides their attendants, Major Gilpin was obliged, on the 15th of November following, again to address the Resident by a representation of this tenor.

“SIR,—­The repeated cries of the women in the Khord Mohul Zenanah for subsistence have been truly melancholy.

LX. “They beg most piteously for liberty, that they may earn their daily bread by laborious servitude, or to be relieved from their misery by immediate death.

LXI.  “In consequence of their unhappy situation, I have this day taken the liberty of drawing on you in favor of Ramnarain, at ten days’ sight, for twenty Son Kerah rupees, ten thousand of which I have paid to Cojah Letafit Ali Khan, under whose charge that zenanah is.”

LXII.  That, notwithstanding all the promises and reiterated engagements of the minister, Hyder Beg Khan, the ladies of the palace aforesaid fell again into extreme distress; and the Resident did again complain to the said minister, who was considered to be, and really and substantially was, the minister of the Governor-General, Warren Hastings, aforesaid, and not of the Nabob, (the said Nabob being, according to the said Hastings’s own account, “a cipher in his [the said minister’s] hands,”) that the funds allowed for their subsistence were not applied to their support.  But notwithstanding all these repeated complaints and remonstrances, and the constant promise of amendment on the part of his, the said Hastings’s, minister, the supply was not more plentiful or more regular than before.

LXIII.  That the said Resident, Bristow, finding by experience the inefficacy of the courses which had been pursued with regard to the mother and grandmother of the reigning prince of Oude, and having received a report from Major Gilpin, informing him that all which could be done by force had been done, and that the only hope which remained for realizing the remainder of the money, unjustly exacted as aforesaid, lay in more lenient methods,[74] he, the said Resident, did, of his own authority, order the removal of the guard from the palaces, the troops being long and much wanted for the defence of the frontier, and other material services,—­and did release the said ministers of the said women of rank, who had been confined and put in irons, and variously distressed and persecuted, as aforerecited, for near twelve months.[75]