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Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797

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

In the mean time Letafit and Hossmund Ali
Khan posted sentries to secure the gates of the lesser Mohul. During
the whole of this conflict, all the ladies and women remained exposed to
the view of the sepoys. The Begum then sent for Letafit and Hossmund Ali
Khan, whom she severely reprimanded, and insisted upon knowing the
causes of this infamous behavior. They pleaded in their defence the
impossibility of helping it, as the treatment the women had met with had
been conformable to his Excellency the Vizier's orders. The Begum
alleged, that, even admitting that the Nabob had given those orders,
they were by no means authorized in this manner to disgrace the family
of Sujah Dowlah; and should they not receive their allowance for a day
or two, it could be of no great moment: what was passed was now at an
end; but that the Vizier should certainly be acquainted with the whole
of the affair, and that whatever he desired she should implicitly comply
with. The Begum then sent for five of the children, who were wounded in
the affray of last night, and, after endeavoring to soothe them, she
sent again for Letafit and Hossmund Ali Khan, and in the presence of the
children expressed her disapprobation of their conduct, and the
improbability of Asoph ul Dowlah's suffering the ladies and children of
Sujah Dowlah to be disgraced by being exposed to the view of the rabble.


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