his confirmed all their suspicions,
that he had been murdered during the night, and they sent off the
joint of the finger to the minister, demanding vengeance on the
murderer. Aga Meer was delighted at this proof of his rival's guilt,
and would have had him seized and tried for the murder forthwith, but
Hakeem Mehndee gave two lacs of rupees, out of the wealth he had
acquired from the murder, to Rae Doulut Rae, Meer Neeaz Hoseyn,
Munshee Musaod, Sobhan Allee Khan, and others, in the minister's
confidence; and they persuaded him, that he had better wait for a
season, till he could charge him with the more serious offence of
defalcations in the revenue, when he might crush him with the weight
of manifold transgressions.

They communicated what they had done to Hakeem Mehnde, who, by
degrees, sent off all his disposable wealth to Shabjehanpoor and
Futtehghur, in British territory. In April 1818, the Governor-General
the Marquess of Hastings passed through the Khyrabad and Bahraetch
districts, attended by Hakeem Mehndee, on a sporting excursion, after
the Mahratta war; and the satisfaction which he expressed to the King
with the Hakeem's conduct during that excursion, added greatly to the
minister's hatred and alarm. He persuaded his Majesty to demand from
Hakeem Mehndee an increase of five lacs of rupees upon nine lacs a-
year, which he already paid for Mahomdee and Khyrabad; and resolved
to have him tried for the murder of Amur Sing, as soon as he could
get him into his power. Hakeem Mehndee knew all this from the friends
he had made at Court, refused to keep the contract at the increased
rate, and, on pretence of settling his accounts, went first to
Seetapoor from Bahraetch, and thence over the border to
Shahjehanpoor, with all his family, and such of the property as he
had not till then been able to send off. The family never recovered
any of the property he had taken from Amur Sing, nor was any one of
the murderers ever punished, or called to account for the crime.

On the departure of Hakeem Mehndee, Hadee Allee Khan (not the brother
of Hakeem Mehndee, but a member of the old official aristocracy of
Oude) got the contract of the district of Bahraetch with that of
Gonda, which had been held in Jageer by and for the widow of Shoja-od
Dowlah, the mother of Asuf-od Dowlah, commonly known by the name of
the Buhoo Begum, of Fyzabad, where she resided. Hadee Allee Khan held
the contract of these two districts for nine year