POONAH. 
139 
when it would have been difficult, nay almost impossible, to 
prove that he had not connived at it. The Paishwa immediately 
gave them up, but put in a plea, that as we wished to imprison our 
enemies, we should not wish to liberate his ; and this seems to have 
been his only motive for not sending them immediately to the 
Resident. I understand, they were much surprised to find his 
Highness so attached to the English. Bonaparte had probably cal- 
culated on a very different reception. They were intelligent men, 
who certainly had before been in the country, and their escape 
might, in many ways, have been disadvantageous. 
The Paishwa is extremely exact in the performance of all the duties 
of his religion. This is supposed to be increased by some anxiety 
about the present state of his father's soul. Suspicions respecting the 
death of SewaiMahdooRaoNarain, who died by a fall from the terrace 
of the palace, were entertained by many. Some thought Ragonaut 
Rao had been instrumental to his fall, but Colonel Close believes him 
to have been innocent. He conceives that the Paishwa threw himself 
down in a fit of spleen, in consequence of a severe lecture he received 
from Nana, who treated him as a child. This happened when the 
Dewan discovered, that he had been carrying on a correspondence 
with the present Paishwa and his brother, the object of which was 
to liberate themselves from the severe tutorage of the old gentleman. 
They were all young men, and what they did was very natural, but 
the event proved fatal. The death of Narain Rao bears still heavier 
on Ragonaut Rao ; though he was killed in an insurrection of his 
guards, yet it was generally supposed they were instigated by his 
uncle, who would have instantly reaped the profit of the crime by 
becoming Paishwa, had not the Brahmins declared, that one of his 
VOL. II. T 
