The Resident was, therefore, directed to instruct Colonel Patton, to
depute one or more officers to the place where the murder was said to
be perpetrated, with orders to hold an inquiry on the spot in
communication with the King of Oude's officers, to take the evidence
of the wounded men, and that of any other persons who might have been
witnesses to any part of the transaction, and to the burial of Mr.
Ravenscroft; and to examine the grave in which the body of the
deceased was said to have been deposited; and further, to call upon
Colonel Patton to state whether any information had previously
reached Secrora of Mr. Ravenscroft's actually residing at Bhinga, or
at any other place within the dominions of the King of Oude. "His
Lordship in Council was," Mr. Swinton says, "satisfied, from the
known humanity of Colonel Patton's character, that every possible aid
and comfort had been extended to Mrs. Ravenscroft and her child; and
the information which that lady and her attendants must have it in
their power to give, could not fail to place the whole affair in its
proper light." Extracts from this letter were sent by the Resident to
Colonel Patton, on the 2nd of June, with a request that he would
adopt immediate measures to carry the orders of Government into
effect; and reply to the question whether any information of Mr.
Ravenscroft's residing at Bhinga had previously reached him.
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