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Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797

"The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 08 (of 12)"


That the said Warren Hastings, by repeated messages and injunctions, and
under menaces of "a dreadful responsibility," did urge the Resident to a
completion of this barbarous act; and well knowing that such an act
would probably be resisted, did order him, the said Resident, to use the
British troops under his direction for that purpose; and did offer the
assistance of further forces, urging the execution in the following
peremptory terms: "You _yourself_ must be _personally present_; you must
not allow _any_ negotiation or forbearance, but must prosecute both
services, until the Begums [princesses] are at the entire mercy of the
Nabob."[61]
XXIII. That, in conformity to the said peremptory orders, a party of
British and other troops, with the Nabob in the ostensible, and the
British Resident in the real command, were drawn towards the city of
Fyzabad, in the castle of which city the mother and grandmother of the
Nabob had their residence; and after expending two days in negotiation,
(the particulars of which do not appear,) the Resident not receiving the
satisfaction he looked for, the town was first stormed, and afterwards
the castle; and little or no resistance being made, and no blood being
shed on either side, the British troops occupied all the outer inclosure
of the palace of one of the princesses, and blocked up the other.


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