prayed that the Resident would
not speak harshly to the King on the subject of the treatment Ghalib
Jung and his family had received, lest he, the minister, should
himself suffer. The Resident insisted upon an audience. He found the
King sullen and doggedly silent. The minister was present, and spoke
for his master. He denied, what was known to be true, that the
prisoner had been kept for two days and two nights' without food or
drink; but admitted that he had been tied up and flogged severely,
and that the females of his family were still there, but he promised
to send them back. He said that it was necessary to confiscate the
property of the prisoner, since he owed large sums to the State. The
females were all sent back to their homes, and Ghalib Jung was
permitted, to have four of his own servants in attendance upon him.

The Resident reported all these things to Government, who entirely
approved of his proceedings; and desired that he would tell his
Majesty that such savage and atrocious proceedings would ruin his
reputation, and, if persisted in, bring on consequences most
injurious to himself. When the Resident, at the audience above
described, remonstrated with the King for not calling upon his
officers periodically to render their accounts, instead of letting
them run on for indefinite periods, and then confining them and
confiscating their property, he replied--"What you state is most
true, and you may be assured that I will in future make every one
account to me every three months for the money he has received, and
never again show favour to any one."

Rajah Dursun Sing, the great revenue contractor, and at that time the
most powerful of the King's subjects beyond the precincts of the
Court, had, like the minister himself, been often thwarted by Ghalib
Jung when in power; and, after the interposition of the Resident, he
applied to have him put into his power. The King and minister were
pleased at the thought of making their victim suffer beyond the
immediate supervision of a vigilant Resident, and the minister made
him over to the Rajah for a _consideration_, it is said, of three
lacs of rupees; and at the same time assured the Resident that this
was the only safe way to rescue him from the further vengeance of an
exasperated King; that Rajah Dursun Sing was a friend of his, and
would provide him and his family and attendants with ample
accommodation and comfort. The Rajah had him put into an iron cage,
an