In 1778, on the first breaking out of the war with France, Cheyte Sing was called upon to pay, in addition to his fixed tribute, an extraordinary contribution of fifty thousand pounds.  In 1779, an equal sum was exacted.  In 1780, the demand was renewed.  Cheyte Sing, in the hope of obtaining some indulgence, secretly offered the Governor-General a bribe of twenty thousand pounds.  Hastings took the money, and his enemies have maintained that he took it intending to keep it.  He certainly concealed the transaction, for a time, both from the Council in Bengal and from the Directors at home; nor did he ever give any satisfactory reason for the concealment.  Public spirit, or the fear of detection, at last determined him to withstand the temptation.  He paid over the bribe to the Company’s treasury, and insisted that the Rajah should instantly comply with the demands of the English Government.  The Rajah, after the fashion of his countrymen, shuffled, solicited, and pleaded poverty.  The grasp of Hastings was not to be so eluded.  He added to the requisition another ten thousand pounds as a fine for delay, and sent troops to exact the money.

The money was paid.  But this was not enough.  The late events in the south of India had increased the financial embarrassments of the Company.  Hastings was determined to plunder Cheyte Sing, and, for that end, to fasten a quarrel on him.  Accordingly, the Rajah was now required to keep a body of cavalry for the service of the British Government.  He objected and evaded.  This was exactly what the Governor-General wanted.  He had now a pretext for treating the wealthiest of his vassals as a criminal.  “I resolved,”—­these were the words of Hastings himself,—­“to draw from his guilt the means of relief of the Company’s distresses, to make him pay largely for his pardon, or to exact a severe vengeance for past delinquency.”  The plan was simply this, to demand larger and larger contributions till the Rajah should be driven to remonstrate, then to call his remonstrance a crime, and to punish him by confiscating all his possessions.

Cheyte Sing was in the greatest dismay.  He offered two hundred thousand pounds to propitiate the British Government.  But Hastings replied that nothing less than half a million would be accepted.  Nay, he began to think of selling Benares to Oude, as he had formerly sold Allahabad and Rohilcund.  The matter was one which could not be well managed at a distance; and Hastings resolved to visit Benares.

Cheyte Sing received his liege lord with every mark of reverence, came near sixty miles, with his guards, to meet and escort the illustrious visitor, and expressed his deep concern at the displeasure of the English.  He even took off his turban, and laid it in the lap of Hastings, a gesture which in India marks the most profound submission and devotion.  Hastings behaved with cold and repulsive severity.  Having arrived at Benares, he sent to the Rajah a paper containing the demands of the Government of Bengal.  The Rajah, in reply, attempted to clear himself from the accusations brought against him.  Hastings, who wanted money and not excuses, was not to be put off by the ordinary artifices of Eastern negotiation.  He instantly ordered the Rajah to be arrested and placed under the custody of two companies of sepoys.