A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, Volumes I & IISleeman, W. H. (William Henry), Sir
History
A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, Volumes I & II
Sleeman, W. H. (William Henry), Sir
Oudh (India) -- Description and travel
It was now ten o'clock, and at twelve the Resident had an interview
with the King, who had become much alarmed, not only for the safety
of the minister, but for that of the city, threatened by the
thousands of bad characters, anxious for an occasion of pillage; and
he expressed an anxious wish that the assassins should be made over
to him for trial. But the Resident pleaded the solemn promise which
he had made, and his Majesty admitted the necessity of the promise
under the circumstances, and that of keeping it; but said that he
would have the whole affair carefully investigated. As soon as the
Resident left him, he sent a company of sipahees with fetters to the
Residency to receive charge of the prisoners, but the Resident would
not give them up. The King then wrote a letter to the Resident with
his own hand, requesting that the prisoners might be surrendered to
him. The Resident, in his reply to His Majesty's, letter, told him,
that he could not so far violate the promise he had given, but that
he would send them to answer any other charges that might be brought
against them, in any open and impartial Court that might be appointed
to try them; and if they should be found guilty of other crimes, His
Majesty might order any sentence passed upon them, short of death, to
be carried into execution.
Charges of many successful attempts of the same kind, and many
atrocious murders perpetrated by the ruffians, in distant districts
of Oude, were preferred against them; and they were prevailed upon to
give up their arms, and to submit to a fair and open trial, on the
other charges preferred against them, on condition that they should
neither be put to death nor in any way maimed, or put in fetters, or
subjected to ill-treatment before trial and conviction. The Resident
offered them the alternative of doing this or leaving the Residency,
after he had read to them the King's letter, and told them, that his
promise extended only to saving their lives and escorting them to the
Residency; and, that he would not be answerable for their lives
beyond the court-yard of the Residency, if they refused the
conditions now offered. They knew that their lives would not be safe
for a moment after they got beyond the court-yard, and submitted.
Their arms and the fifty thousand rupees were sent to the King. At
four in the afternoon, the four prisoners were made over to the
King's wakeel, on a solemn promise given under the express sanction
of his Majesty, of safe conduct through the streets, of freedom from
fetters, or any kind of ill-treatment before conviction, and of fair
and open trial.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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