INSURRECTION AT BENARES. 
155 
“ Your gracious letter has been received, and has 
made me acquainted with your commands. You 
order, that in the afternoon Mr. William Markham 
will come to me, that I must not suffer any appre- 
hension to disturb me, hut remain at ease in my mind. 
My protector ! wherever you spread your shadow 
over my head, I am entirely free from concern and 
apprehension ; and whatever you, who are my mas- 
ter, shall, as such, determine, will be right.” 
At this time, Mr. Hastings had prepared further 
instructions for the resident, which had been trans- 
mitted to him ; but, before he could leave his house to 
put them into execution, he was informed that con- 
siderable bodies of armed men had crossed the river 
from Ramnagur, and, assuming a very unequivocal 
attitude, had surrounded the Shewallah Gaut. Two 
companies of grenadier sepoys, commanded by Lieu- 
tenants Stalker, Scott, and Simes, composed the whole 
of the guard placed over the Rajah, and they were 
stationed in the large quadrangle at the back of 
the building enclosing the apartment in which the 
prisoner was confined. So utterly unapprehensive 
were these gallant officers, as they but too fatally 
proved to be, of treachery or danger, that they had 
neglected to order the troops to prepare for resistance, 
so that they had not a single charge in their car- 
touches. Major Popham, indeed, from whose regi- 
ment they had been selected, sent another detachment 
under command of a subaltern, with ammunition, to 
reinforce them in case of an attack ; but this precau- 
tion was taken too late. When these latter arrived 
at the Shewallah Gaut, they found all the avenues 
