[30] 'If', said he, 'the Begam should die under
the torture of mind and body to which you are subjecting her, the
minister will very soon resume the lands assigned for your payment,
and disband a force so disorderly, and so little likely to be of any
use to him or the Emperor.' A council of war was held--the Begam was
taken out from under the gun, and reseated on the 'masnad'. A paper
was drawn up by about thirty European officers, of whom only one,
Monsieur Saleur, could sign his own name, swearing in the name of God
and Jesus Christ,[31] that they would henceforward obey her with all
their hearts and souls, and recognize no other person whomsoever as
commander. They all affixed their seals to this _covenant_; but some
of them, to show their superior learning, put their initials, or what
they used as such, for some of these _learned Thebans_ knew only two
or three letters of the alphabet, which they put down, though they
happened not to be their real initials. An officer on the part of
Sindhia, who was to have commanded these troops, was present at this
reinstallation of the Begam, and glad to take, as a compensation for
his disappointment, the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand rupees,
which the Begam contrived to borrow for him.
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