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secret unattended visits to the Ajodhya fair, for the purpose of bathing she was followed by the spies, who immediately communicated with their master. She was soon traced by the babu to the Stiraj Kund tank, where he suddenly rode up to her litter, and found her attended by the five men who carried her, and by a confidential retainer or two. She at once asked who the horseman was, and was answered, " I am he whom you are searching for, and who has long been looking for you." She invited him to dismount, which he did, and sat beside her litter. She then addressed him, begging him to remember that no disgrace had ever befallen the house of Dera none had ever been lepers, one-eyed, or otherwise contemptible and to look to it that he maintained the credit of the family having thus said she laid her head at the babu's feet, and added, " Now I am in your power and I am ready to die." Here a companion of the babu's, who was in his confidence, rode up and suggested that the hour had come but Rustam Sah replied, that no one that placed their life in his hands should be hurt so he desired his own men to convey her over the Gogra, where they had connections, and he set off for Dera. She was duly carried across the river, and it is related, as an instance of her indomitable pluck, that during the nine days she was kept there, she never drank water. She was then compelled to write a deed in favor of Rustam Sah, which I have seen, and she was then released but so great was the shock that her proud nature had sustained, that in a few months she pined and died. For a short time Dilrdj Kunwar the niece, of whom mention has been made, attempted to obtain the property but with the aid of the nazim her claim was soon negatived. Rustam Sah was put in formal possession by the nazim, and expended Rs. 35,000 in propitiating the clansmen. The nazim then moved from Dera, where he hard been encamped, to Kadipur Rustam Sah and a large gathering accompanying the camp. There, in the presence of the official named, the babu first discovered what the intentions of the former really were, and that he was being made a tool of; for he overheard a conversation in which the estate of Dera was spoken of as Mangarh, a name the nazim had just given to it, calling it after himself The truth at once flashed across Rustam Sah's mind, and he replied, with his rough and ready wit, " Well, its proper name is Dipnagar, but henceforth let it be Mangarh or Be-imdngarh, as circumstances may indicate." fight would instantly have ensued, and the raja, who related these facts to me not a fortnight before he died, assured me that he was ready at the moment to spring at the nazim and murder him ; but a pandit, who was present, interfered, saying that the moment was not propitious,; and so the conflict was postponed. By the morning Rustam S^h had sought an asylum across the British border. A few months subsequently final terms were made, and by an expenditure of Rs. 9.5,000 the babu was duly installed as taluqdar of Dera. The estate consisted of 336 villages, paying Rs. 80,419 per annum to Government at annexation. In Madho Singh's time, AD. 1808, the property consisted of 183 villages, paying an annual rental of Rs. 26,615 to Government.
pay one of her
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Sah's services during the mutiny were excellent. suffered at annexation under the revenue policy of that day, and lost most of his villages. StiU he gave shelter, and safe convoy to Benares, to a party of the Sultanpur fugitives. While I was in charge of the Jaunpur
Rustam
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