Secret Correspondence of the Court of the Peshwa. l6l 



" never allowed my private feelings to evince themselves in my manners or 

 " conduct towards him, nor will I ever do so. Naro Pant will explain 

 " every thing you wish." 



The two following letters are without date, but they evidently refer to 

 his intrigues with Ragoba about this period. 



MoRABA to his cousin Nana Farnevis. 



" Your letter has been received. It is positively true then that I am in 

 ' the habit of communicating with Ragoba Dada, and that at such a time 

 ' as the present, his Highness believes it ! During the whole period of my 

 ' administration, I saw Dada only five or six times, on which occasions 

 ' Crishna Rao was almost always present. If I have ever seen or com- 

 ' municated with him since then, I am certainly guilty. If Dada has 

 * infringed the oath he took, and I have been accessary to it, let me be 

 ' punished in any way his Highness pleases ; or else let me go on some 

 ' pilgrimage, when, if you please, you may send fifty or a hundred soldiers 

 ' to look after me. Ragoba Dada has been my enemy since my birth. 

 ' His minister, moreover, is my enemy. If his Highness the Peshwa 

 ' reflects a little on these facts, he will himself discover how he has been 

 ' deceived. Such, however, is the temper of the times. This was the 

 ' only thing they could find against me. It is of no use to serve a master 

 ' when all confidence is lost ; so I beg of you to tell his Highness plainly, 

 ' that he must assure me that his suspicions are removed before I 

 ' return. If not, let him place a guard over me, and send me to live 

 ' somewhere in retirement on the banks of the Godaveri. Either send me 

 ' word to go at once, or let me be sent for to the presence, and I will 

 ' come immediately." 



From the same to the same. 



" The message communicated through Haki Pant, you no doubt conceive 

 ' to be highly proper. Send one like it again, if you choose. Reflect, however, 

 ' before you act. Consider the person and the proofs, and do not act on 

 ' the word of any low fellow. But so it is. If I were suspected, you 

 ' might have sent for, and accused me to my face. You should at all events 

 ' have established something like proof before you acted, and then you 

 ' miglit have done what you chose. This would have been worthy of 

 ' the master you serve. Matters of this nature ought not to be done 

 ' hastily." 



Vol. II. Y 



