136 LUCKNO W. 
valry, camels, and led horses, richly caparisoned. The second court 
was lined with troops, who received us with presented arms. It was 
impossible to advance any further on our elephants ; we therefore 
quitted them, and entering our palanquins, were carried through a 
smaller into a larger court, at the end of which was a palace built 
by the present Nawaub, where he generally resides. It is a handsome 
edifice, surrounded by a verandah. At the bottom of the steps we 
quitted our palanquins, and were met by his Excellency at the top. 
He embraced me as his equal. At that moment a salute of seventeen 
guns was fired. We were led to a breakfast table in a room fur- 
nished with chairs, and every other article in the European style. 
The greatest part of his family were present, but he introduced only 
his second son, who is his general, and prime minister. Two cour- 
tiers, who are more particularly under the protection of the English, 
and who have been dignified by them with the titles of Lord 
Noodle and Lord Doodle, were also there ; but the person I ob- 
served with the most curiosity, was Almas Ali Khan, the eunuch 
so celebrated by Mr. Burke's pathetic account of the distresses 
which his wives and children suffered from the barbarity of that 
" Captain General ia iniquity," Mr. Hastings. He is a venerable, 
old woman-like being, upwards of eighty, full six feet high, and 
stout in proportion. After all the cruel plunderings which he is 
stated as having undergone, he is supposed to be worth half a 
million of money; and no wonder, when it is considered, that 
for a considerable time he was Aumil, or renter, of nearly half the 
province of Oude. The Nawaub watches with care for his suc- 
cession which by the Eastern custom belongs to him. With all his 
affluence, Almas is but a slave, now nearly in his dotage, though 
