In spite of this engagement, Goureeshunker, when the tenants had become lulled into security by the hope of remaining under their own chief, suddenly, with his troops, seized upon all he could catch, plundered their houses, and tortured them till they paid all that they could prevail upon their relatives and friends to lend them. Eighteen hundred of their plough-bullocks were seized and sold by him, together with many of their wives and daughters. While under torture, Seetaram, a respectable Brahmin, of Kandookoeea, put an end to his existence, to avoid further sufferings and dishonour. Sucheet, another respectable Brahmin, of Pagaree, did the same by opening a vein in his thigh. A cloth steeped in oil was bound round the hands of those who appeared able, but unwilling, to pay ransoms, and set fire to, so as to burn like a torch. In these tortures, Lala Beharee Lal, Rughbur Sing's deputy, was the chief agent. "I found," says Captain Orr, "the estate of Pyagpoor in a desolate condition; village after village presenting nothing but bare walls--the finest arable lands lying waste, and no sign of cultivation was anywhere to be seen. Even the present Nazim, Mahommed Hussan, after conciliating and inviting in the Rajah on further solemn assurances of personal security, seized him and all his family, and kept them confined in prison for several months, till they paid him an exorbitant ransom. The poorer classes told me, that it was impossible for them to plough their fields, since all their plough-bullocks had been seized and sold by the Nazim's agents. Great numbers in this and the adjoining estates have subsisted entirely upon wild fruits, and some species of aquatic plants, since they were ruined by these atrocities." This picture is not at all overdrawn. In passing through the estate, and communing with the few wretched people who remain, I find all that Captain Orr stated in his report to be strictly correct.