withstood everything till the fort of Chunar was mentioned to them; and
then their fortitude gave way: and why? The fort of Chunar was not in
the dominions of the Nabob, whose rights they pretended to be
vindicating: to name a British fort, in their circumstances, was to name
everything that is most horrible in tyranny; so, at least, it appeared
to them. They gave way; and thus were committed acts of oppression and
cruelty unknown, I will venture to say, in the history of India. The
women, indeed, could not be brought forward and scourged, but their
ministers were tortured, till, for their redemption, these princesses
gave up all their clothes, all the ornaments of their persons, all their
jewels, all the memorials of their husbands and fathers,--all were
delivered up, and valued by merchants at 50,000_l._; and they also gave
up 5,000_l._ in money, or thereabouts: so that, in reality, only about
5,000_l._, a mere nothing, a sum not worth mentioning, even in the
calculations of extortion and usury, remained unpaid.

But, my Lords, what became of all this money? When you examine these
witnesses here, they tell you it was paid to Hyder Beg Khân. Now they
had themselves received the money in tale at their own assay-table. And
when an account is demanded of the produce of the goods, they shrink
from it, and say it was Hyder Beg Khân who received the things and sold
them. Where is Hyder Beg Khân's receipt? The Begums say (and the thing
speaks for itself) that even gold and jewels coming from them lost their
value; that part of the goods were spoilt, being kept long unsold in
damp and bad warehouses; and that the rest of the goods were sold, as
thieves sell their spoil, for little or nothing. In all this business
Mr. Hastings and Mr. Middleton were themselves the actors, chief actors;
but now, when they are called to account, they substitute Hyder Beg Khân
in their place, a man that is dead and gone, and you hear nothing more
of this part of the business.