Captain Edwards being asked,—­“Whether he ever heard any native of credit and authority in the Nabob’s dominions, who appeared to believe the rebellion of the Begums?—­A. No, I never did.—­Q. Have you any reason to believe that the Nabob gave credit to it?—­A. I really cannot rightly presume to say whether the Nabob did or did not; but I am apt to believe that he did not.—­Q. Have you any reason, and what, to form a belief about it?—­A. I have.  I think, if he supposed the rebellion, ever existed at Fyzabad, he would have been the first person to take and give the alarm to the British troops.—­Q. And no such alarm was taken or given to the British troops?—­A. No, I think not:  as I was always about his person, and in the camp, I think I certainly must have known it or heard of it; but I never did.”

We assure your Lordships, you will find upon your printed Minutes, that Captain Edwards says he was credibly informed that the Nabob left behind him a part of his guard of horse; and that, so desirous was he to go into the power of this cruel lioness, his mother, that he advanced, as he is a vigorous man, and a bold and spirited rider, leaving all his guards behind him, and rode before them into the middle of Fyzabad.  There is some more evidence to the same purpose in answer to the question put next to that which I read before.

“Q. When you did hear of the rebellion, did not you understand it to have been alleged that one object of it was to dethrone the Nabob himself, as well as to extirpate the English?—­A. I understood that the intention of the princesses, the Begums, was to extirpate the English troops out of the country and out of those dominions, and likewise to depose her son, and set another son, who seems to have been a greater favorite of that family, upon the throne, in the room of the present Nabob; and that son’s name is Saadut Ali.  I have only heard this from report.  I have no other knowledge but mere report.  I understood from the report, she was to extirpate the English, and depose her son who is now upon the throne.—­Q. Was it after or before the seizing of the treasures, that you heard a circumstantial account of the supposed object of the rebellion?—­A. The report was more general after the seizing of the treasures; but yet there were reports prevailing in the neighborhood that our troops were sent there in consequence of the charge that was made by Colonel Hannay and some of his officers of rebellion existing then at Fyzabad, or having existed, I cannot rightly say which.—­Q. Was that report after the order for the troops to march to Fyzabad?—­A. It was more general, it was very general then when the troops did march there, and more general after the seizing of the treasures.—­Q. When did the troops first march?—­A. It was some time in the month of January, I believe, in the year 1782.—­Q. While you was