reply was May 1853. It bore its fruit at Kánhpur in June 1857.
Náná Sáhib accepted it with apparent composure, but it rankled in his bosom. To prosecute his claims he had, early in the year, despatched to England a young Muhammadan in his service, Azím-ullah Khán by name, of a pleasant presence and a taking address. Before Azím-ullah could reach England judgment had already been recorded. Being in the receipt of a sufficient allowance from his master, the young man stayed in England, and entered freely into the pleasures of English life. But he always had an eye to the interests of Náná Sáhib. Whilst he was yet in England the Crimean war broke out. Shortly afterwards there came from the seat of war those stories of suffering which, from his place in the House of Commons, the late Lord John Russell described as 'horrible and heart-rending.' The imaginative mind of the young oriental came to the conclusion that some terrible disaster was about to befall the British army. Were such to occur, there might be some hope for Náná Sáhib. He proceeded, then, to the seat of war, entered into communication with foreigners of diverse nations, and from his conversations with them, and from his own personal inspection, came to the conclusion that England, the England which had asserted herself with so much haughtiness in India, was on the brink of destruction, that it would require but a united effort on the part of the princes and people of her great dependency to 'push her from her stool.' With these convictions fresh and strongly rooted in his mind he returned, in 1856, to the Náná at Bithor. Shortly after his return the Náná paid a somewhat mysterious visit to Lakhnao, accompanied by Azím-ullah and a considerable following. I have called his visit 'mysterious,' for it so impressed the English authorities in that city that Sir
