off to take up his quarters at Delhi when this conversation took place; and I am sure that he told me what he thought to be true.  This narrative corresponded exactly with that of several other old men from whom I had heard the story.  It should be recollected that among natives there is no particular mode of execution prescribed for those who are condemned to die; nor, in a camp like this, any court of justice save that of the commander in which they could be tried, and, supposing the guilt to have been established, as it is said to have been to the satisfaction of the Begam and the principal officers, who were all Europeans and Christians, perhaps the punishment was not much greater than the crime deserved and the occasion demanded.  But it is possible that the slave girls may not have set fire to the buildings, but merely availed themselves of the occasion of the fire to run off; indeed, slave girls are under so little restraint in India, that it would be hardly worth while for them to burn down a house to get out.  I am satisfied that the Begam believed them guilty, and that the punishment, horrible as it was, was merited.  It certainly had the desired effect.  My object has been to ascertain the truth in this case, and to state it, and not to eulogize or defend the old Begam.

After Paoli’s death, the command of the troops under the Begam devolved successively upon Baours, Evans, Dudrenec, who, after a short time, all gave it up in disgust at the beastly habits of the European subalterns, and the overbearing insolence to which they and the want of regular pay gave rise among the soldiers.  At last the command devolved upon Monsieur Le Vaisseau, a French gentleman of birth, education, gentlemanly deportment, and honourable feelings.[20] The battalions had been increased to six, with their due proportion of guns and cavalry; part resided at Sardhana, her capital, and part at Delhi, in attendance upon the Emperor.  A very extraordinary man entered her service about the same time with Le Vaisseau, George Thomas, who, from a quartermaster on board a ship, raised himself to a principality in Northern India.[21] Thomas on one occasion raised his mistress in the esteem of the Emperor and the people by breaking through the old rule of central squares:  gallantly leading on his troops, and rescuing his majesty from a perilous situation in one of his battles with a rebellious subject, Najaf Kuli Khan, where the Begam was present in her palankeen, and reaped all the laurels, being from that day called ’the most beloved daughter of the Emperor’.[22] As his best chance of securing his ascendancy against such a rival, Le Vaisseau proposed marriage to the Begam, and was accepted.  She was married to Le Vaisseau by Father Gregoris, a Carmelite monk, in 1793, before Saleur and Bernier, two French officers of great merit.  George Thomas left her service, in consequence, in 1793, and set up for himself; and was afterwards crushed by the united armies of the Sikhs and Marathas, commanded