gives an account of the poor lady, who was evidently regretting her lodgings in Fort William, and very uneasy as to her fate.
This second volume of the diary concludes with an account of Bájí Ráo, the famous Peshwá,
'who in the last Maratha war caused so much fatigue in pursuit, and hard fighting to the British troops, under Lord Hastings. Captain Low[1] has had the custody of him ever since, and says he is one of the best mannered Indians he ever saw. His conversation is superior, gentle, and temperate. His mad ambition has softened down into luxury, ease, and idleness; and the worship and rites of his gods at present is his only occupation. The enormous allowance of eight lacs of rupees, paid by the Company to him ever since he was taken prisoner, and the Maráthá power destroyed, enables him, his family, and followers who are very numerous, to enjoy every kind of luxury.'
We are now in October, 1825, and the beginning of the cold weather. A ghastly event has just occurred in the immediate neighbourhood of Calcutta:
'A young man having died of cholera, his widow resolved to mount the funeral pile. The usual preparations were made, and the licence procured from the magistrate. The fire was lighted by the nearest relations; when the flame reached her, however, she lost courage, and amid a volume of smoke, and the deafening screams of the mob, tomtoms, drums, &c. she contrived to slip down unperceived, and gained a neighbouring
- ↑ Familiar to so many as Sir John Low, K.C.B., of Chatto, in Fife. My father has told me that in those early days he was offered a lac of rupees on one occasion, only to allow one elephant to precede another in some public procession.— A. T. R.
