Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/83

Book VI. so little strength remaining, that they were employed near half an hour in removing the bodies which lay against the door, before they could clear a passage to go out one at a time; when of one hundred and forty-six who went in, no more than twenty-three came out alive, the ghastliest forms that ever were seen alive. The Nabob's troops beheld them, and the havock of death from which they had escaped, with indifference; but did not prevent them from removing to a distance, and were immediately obliged, by the intolerable stench, to clear the dungeon, whilst others dug a ditch on the outside of the fort, into which all the dead bodies were promiscuously thrown.

Mr. Holwell, unable to stand, was soon after earned to the Nabob, who was so far from shewing any compassion for his condition, or remorse for the death of the other prisoners, that he only talked of the treasures which the English had buried; and threatening him with farther injuries, if he persisted in concealing them, ordered him to be kept a prisoner. The officers to whose charge he was delivered, put him into fetters, together with Messrs. Command Walcot, who were likewise supposed to know something of the treasures; the rest of the survivors, amongst whom were Messrs. Cooke and Mills, were told they might go where they pleased; but an English woman, the only one of her sex amongst the sufferers, was reserved for the seraglio of the general Meer Jaffier. The dread of remaining any longer within the reach of such barbarians determined most of them to remove immediately, as far as their strength enabled them, from the fort, and most tended towards the vessels which were still in sight; but when they reached Govindpore in the southern part of the company's bounds, they were informed that guards were stationed to prevent any persons from passing to the vessels, on which most of them took shelter in deserted huts, where some of the natives, who had served the English in different employments, came and administered to their immediate wants. Two or three however ventured, and got to the vessels before sun-set. Their appearance and the dreadful tale they had to tell were the severest of reproaches to those on board, who, intent only on their own preservation,