He told me he
had received information from Lucknow, that, by the advice of Hyder Beg
Khan, the Vizier had determined to bring his grandmother, the widow of
Sufdar Jung, from Fyzabad to Lucknow, with a view of getting a further
sum of money from her, by seizing on her eunuchs, digging up the
apartments of her house at Fyzabad, and putting her own person under
restraint. This, he said, he knew was not an act of our government, but
the mere advice of Hyder Beg Khan, to which the Vizier had been induced
to attend. He added, that the old Begum had resolved rather to put
herself to death than submit to the disgrace intended to be put upon
her; that, if such a circumstance should happen, there is _not a man in
Hindostan who will attribute the act to the Vizier [Nabob of Oude], but
every one will fix the odium on the English, who might easily, by the
influence they so largely exercise in their own concerns there_, have
prevented such unnatural conduct in the Vizier. He therefore called upon
me, as the English representative in this quarter, to inform you of
this, that you may prevent a step which will destroy all confidence in
the English nation throughout Hindostan, and excite the bitterest
resentment in all those who by blood are connected with the house of
Sufdar Jung.
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