INSURRECTION AT BENARES. 
167 
while the opposite party regained their confidence in 
proportion as that of their enemies declined. Besides 
this, the native chiefs under subjection to the Com- 
pany’s government, who had hitherto either wavered 
or shown a disposition to revolt, were struck with 
awe, and thus prevented from violating their alle- 
giance. 
The conduct of Cheit Singh, when he was informed 
of the defeat of the troops at Pateeta, shows at once 
the innate baseness of his character and the savage 
fury of his heart ; it furnishes, moreover, a full justifi- 
cation of Mr. Hastings, not only in suspecting the 
treacherous designs of that unfeeling rebel, but also in 
attempting to visit upon him the punishment of a 
refractory feudatory. Fourteen men, who had sur- 
vived the unfortunate destruction of the detachment 
under the command of Captain Mayaffre, had been 
made prisoners, and were sent to Lutteefpoor, whither 
the Zemeendar had retired after his escape from the 
Shewallah Gaut : they happened to arrive on the 
very morning the news of the defeat at Pateeta 
reached that fortress. Cheit Singh, burning with 
rage at his visionary expectations being so sud- 
denly overthrown, immediately gave orders for the 
execution of these unfortunate prisoners, when they 
were all inhumanly massacred upon the spot, in the 
presence of the sanguinary Rajah, with the exception 
of one poor fellow, who contrived to drag his lacerated 
body into the neighbouring wood, where he subsisted 
for some days upon wild fruits, but, returning to the 
fort, obtained the monster’s pardon, and survived. 
