Many of them gave premature birth to children and died on
the road; and many children were trodden to death by the animals on
the road, which was crowded for more than ten miles.
Rughbur Sing and his agents, Beharee Lal, Kurum Hoseyn, Maharaj Sing,
Prag Sing, and others, selected several thousand of the finest
cattle, and sent them to their homes; and the rest were left to the
officers and soldiers of the force to be disposed of; and, for all
this enormous number of animals, worth at least one hundred thousand
rupees, the small sum of one hundred and thirty rupees was credited
in the Nazim's accounts to the Rajah's estate. At Busuntpoor the
force was divided into two parties, for the purpose of torturing the
surviving prisoners till they consented to sign bonds, for the
payment of such sums as might be demanded from them. Beharee Lal
presided over the first party, in which they were tortured from day-
break till noon. They were tied up and flogged, had red-hot ramrods
thrust into their flesh, their tongues were pulled out with hot
pincers and pierced through; and, when all would not do, they were
taken to Kurum Hoseyn, who presided at the other party, to be
tortured again till the evening. He sat with a savage delight, to
witness this brutal scene and invent new kinds of torture. No less
than seventy men, besides women and children, perished at Busuntpoor
from torture and starvation; and their bodies were left to rot in the
mud, and their friends were afraid to approach them.
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