But they had not gone two paces from the Residency court-yard, when they were set upon by the very people sent by the King to take care of them on the way; the King's wakeel having got into his palkee and gone on before them towards the palace. They were beaten with whips, sticks, and the hilts of swords, till one of the four fell down insensible, and the other three were reduced to a pitiable condition. The Resident took measures to protect them from further violence, recalled the wakeel; and, after admonishing him for his dishonourable conduct, had the prisoners taken unfettered to a convenient house near the prison. The wounded minister wrote to the King, earnestly praying that the prisoners might not suffer any kind of ill-treatment before conviction, after a fair and impartial trial. The Resident reported to Government all that had occurred, and stated, that he should see that the promises made to the prisoners were fulfilled, that, should they be convicted before the Court appointed to conduct the trial, of other crimes perpetrated before this assault on the minister, they would be subject to such punishment as the Mahommedan law prescribed for such crimes. Three of them, Tuffuzzul Hoseyn, Hyder Khan, and Fuzl Allee, were convicted, on their own confessions, and the testimony of their own relations, of many cold blooded murders, and successful attempts to extort money from respectable and wealthy persons in different parts of Oude, similar to this on the minister, and all four were sentenced to imprisonment for life. The Government of India had insisted on their not being executed or mutilated. Fuzl Allee, as above stated, broke jail, and is still at large at his old trade, and Hyder Khan is still in prison at Lucknow. These ruffians appear to have been encouraged, in this assault upon the minister, for the purpose of extorting money, by a similar but more successful attempt made in the year 1824, by a party headed by a person named Syud Mahomed Eesa Meean, _alias_ Eesa Meean.