command of the forces, and to make another chamberlain, he hoped to retain them longer than any of his predecessors had done. Gambhîr Singh's brother, Jhujhâr Singh, and the husband of his sister, hearing of his murder, made off, but were soon pursued and put to death. The widows were all three put into prison, and all the property and estates were confiscated. The movable property amounted to three lakhs of rupees.[7] The Râjâ boasted to the Governor- General's representative in Bundêlkhand of this act of retributive justice, and pretended that it was executed merely as a punishment for the robbery; but it was with infinite difficulty the merchants could recover from him any share of the plundered property out of that confiscated. The Râjâ alleged that, according to our _rules_, the chief within whose boundary the robbery might have been committed, was obliged to make good the property. On inspection, it was found that the robbery was perpetrated upon the very boundary line, and 'in spite of pride, in erring reason's spite', the Jhânsî Râjâ was made to pay one-half of the plundered treasure. The old Râjâ, Bikramâjît, died in June, 1834; and, though his death had been some time expected, he no sooner breathed his last than charges of 'dînaî', slow poison, were got up, as usual, in the zenana (seraglio). Here the widow of Râjâ Bahâdur, a violent and sanguinary woman, was supreme; and she persuaded the present Râjâ, a weak old man, to take advantage of the funeral ceremonies to avenge the death of his brother. He did so; and Bihârî, and his three brothers, with above fifty of his relations, were murdered. The widows of the four brothers were the only members of all the families left alive. One of them had a son four months old; another one of two years; the four brothers had no other children. Immediately after the death of their husbands, the two children were snatched from their mothers' breasts, and threatened with instant death unless their mothers pointed out all their ornaments and other property. They did so; and the spoilers having got from them property to the amount of one hundred and fifty thousand rupees, and been assured that there was no more, threw the children over the high wall, by which they were dashed to pieces. The poor widows were tendered as wives to four sweepers, the lowest of all low castes; but the tribe of sweepers would not suffer any of its members to take the widows of men of such high caste and station as wives, notwithstanding the tempting offer of five hundred rupees as a present, and a village in rent-free tenure.[8] I secured a promise while at Tehrî that these poor widows should be provided for, as they had, up to that time, been preserved by the good feeling of a little community of the lowest of castes, on whom they had been bestowed as a punishment worse than death, inasmuch as it would disgrace the whole class to which they belonged, the Parihâr Râjpûts.[9]