, like
the rest, and to take it wherever they can find it. When we have
occasion to attack, or lay siege to a stronghold, all the roofs,
doors, and windows of the people are, of course, taken to form
scaling-ladders, batteries, &c.; and it is lamentable, sir, to see
the desolation created around, after even a very short siege."
Rajah Hunmunt Sing and Benee Madho were riding with me, and when we
had passed through a large crowd of seemingly happy peasantry in one
village, I asked Benee Madho (whose tenants they were), whether they
would all have to follow his fortunes if he happened to take up arms
against the Government.
"Assuredly," said he, "they would all be bound in honour to follow
me, or to desert their lands at least."
"And if they did not, I suppose you would deem it a _point of honour_
to plunder them?"
"That he assuredly would," said Rajah Hunmunt Sing; "and make them
the first victims."
"And if any of them fell fighting on his side, would he think it a
_point of honour_ to-provide for their families?"
"That we all do," said he; "they are always provided for, and taken
the greatest possible care of."
"And if any one is killed in fighting for the King?"
They did not reply to this question, but the adjutant, Bhopaul Sing,
said,--"his family would be left to shift for themselves,--no one
asks a question about them."
"This," observed Rajah Bukhtawar Sing, "is one of the great sources
of the evil that exists in Oude.
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