148 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



summit of a hill. The hill is of no great elevation, 

 but its sides are steep, and it rises abruptly from the 

 margin of the river, and this in those days rendered 

 its position a strong one. The hill forms the termi- 

 nation of a low range which stretches away to the 

 westward, and rising continually in altitude, unites 

 at length with the mountains of Central India. 



Warren Hastings remained shut up in the fort of 

 Chunar till the arrival of a force sent from Calcutta 

 to relieve him ; and, from the slow manner in which 

 affairs in those days were conducted, this was not 

 till after the lapse of a considerable period. Mean- 

 while throughout all the adjacent country there was 

 much the same condition of things as in the present 

 century followed the breaking out of the Mutiny. 

 There were, to be sure, no massacres and but little 

 disorder, but everywhere in a similar manner the 

 British authority at once, as it were, disappeared. 



As far as I remember, the narrative does not mention 

 the punishment awarded to the Raja of Benares. That, 

 perhaps, was a matter for later determination. I rather 

 think that eventually it was thought sufficient to impose 

 on him a heavy fine. 



In reading the narrative two things particularly struck 

 me. The one was that Warren Hastings did not issue 

 his orders for the arrest of the Raja through any of his 

 secretaries. He wrote himself a letter to the com- 

 mander of his escort directing him to march down a 

 party of Sepoys, to arrest the Raja in his palace and 

 to return with him to the camp. In later times such 

 action on the part of one so exalted as the Governor- 



