There were closed doors on the side of the room where the cot stood,
and Captain Bird perceived that persons were behind listening to the
conversation. On the minister advancing to meet him at the door.
Captain Bird declined taking his proffered hand, and in a loud voice
declared--"that he believed that he was mixed up with the fiddlers,
and was afraid of their being removed, or he would have carried his
Majesty's order for their dismissal into effect." He then advanced to
the King, shook him by the hand, apologized for intruding upon him
after his excuse of illness, and stated--"that his own character was
at stake, and he had been obliged to take this step to save it, and
requested that the minister might be told to retire during the
conversation, as he had already shown his partiality for the
characters whom his Majesty had stigmatized as low, intriguing, and
untrustworthy--as ruiners of his good name and his kingdom, and the
cause of ill-feeling between the British Government and himself. The
King expressed a wish that the minister might remain, that he might
have an opportunity to listen to what Captain Bird had to state, as
it appeared to be against him. Captain Bird replied, that he had no
complaint to make against the minister; that his object in coming
was, to claim the fulfilment of the promise which his Majesty had so
solemnly made to him, to dismiss Gholam Ruza and his sister, and
Kotub Allee, and send them across the Ganges; that he was induced to
demand this audience by the minister's visit of the preceding
evening, to ask him to excuse his Majesty's fulfilling the promise
which he had made; and by the written report given to him that
morning by the news-writer, stating, that his Majesty had changed his
mind, and pardoned the parties.
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