if then you deem it proper, no possible means of offence being left in
her hands or those of her agents, all her lands and property having been
taken, I mean, with your sanction, to restore her house and servants to
her, and hope to be favored with your early reply, as I expect that a
few days will complete the final surrender of all that is further
expected from the Begum."

There are some things in this letter which I shall beg your Lordships to
remark. There is mention made of a few preliminary severities used by
Mr. Middleton, in order to get at their money. Well, he did get at the
money, and he got a bond for the payment of an additional sum, which
they thought proper to fix at about six hundred thousand pounds, to
which was added another usurious bond for sixty thousand; and in order
to extort these forced bonds, and to make up their aggravated crimes of
usury, violence, and oppression, they put these eunuchs into prison,
without food and water, and loaded their limbs with fetters. This was
their second imprisonment; and what followed these few severities your
Lordships will remark,--still more severities. They continued to
persecute, to oppress, to work upon these men by torture and by the fear
of torture, till at last, having found that all their proceedings were
totally ineffectual, they desire the women to surrender their house;
though it is in evidence before you, that to remove a woman from her own
house to another house without her consent is an outrage of the greatest
atrocity, on account of which many women have not only threatened, but
have actually put themselves to death. Mr. Hastings himself, in the case
of Munny Begum, had considered such a proposition as the last degree of
outrage that could be offered. These women offered to go from house to
house while their residence was searched; but "No," say their
tormentors, "the treasure may be bricked up, in so large a house, in
such a manner that we cannot find it."