means, or, if need was, by the very foulest, it behoved the usurper
to bring the matter to a speedy termination. One method remained;
swifter than famine; more sure than open force. It might be possible to
cajole where he might not frighten; to ensnare those whom he could not
vanquish; to lure our countrymen from the shelter of that wall within
which no intruder had set his foot and lived.
In one of the rooms in the Savada House the Greenway family, of
whom mention has been made above, had now been shut up for about
a fortnight, in strict confinement, diversified by an occasional
conversation with an underling of the Maharaja. He had fixed their
ransom at forty thousand pounds, and was at present discussing the
terms of a bill of exchange on a Calcutta bank, for which they were
never to receive any consideration. In the same apartment lived
an elderly person, named Mrs. Jacobi, who had been taken while
endeavouring to escape towards Lucknow, disguised in native clothes.
On the evening of Tuesday, the twenty-third, these unhappy people
were surprised at receiving a call from Azimoolah and Jwala Pershad,
who seemed in very low spirits on account of the collapse of their
centenary. These gentlemen informed Mrs. Jacobi[3] that she had
been designated as the bearer of a message to Sir Hugh Wheeler. She
readily undertook the office, and in the course of the next day was
favoured by an interview with the Nana, who gave her a letter and her
instructions. At nine o'clock on the following morning, she proceeded
to the intrenchments in a palanquin, and was admitted as soon as the
sentries had ascertained that she was an envoy, and not a spy. She
delivered the document which had been entrusted to her charge; a note
in the handwriting of Azimoolah, attested by no signature, of which
the superscription was "To the subjects of Her Most Gracious Majesty
Queen Victoria;" and the contents ran as follows, in caricature of a
proclamation issued from the Government House at Calcutta:--
"All those who are in no way connected with the acts of Lord Dalhousie,
and are willing to lay down their arms, shall receive a safe passage to
Allahabad."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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