Page:A revised and enlarged account of the Bobbili zemindari.djvu/87

Rh Sirdar, having accordingly gone into the fort to deliver the message, was received by Ranga-Rao with due respect and courtesy, and after a short formal conversation, fully represented to the Zemindar what he was directed to do. The Velama lord, whose feelings were bitterly wounded at the contents of the message, gave the following unambiguous reply: 'Sir, the Naubath was granted to us by the Moghul Emperor, but was neither stolen nor unjustly wrested by force from anybody. We, there-fore, do not see why we should lose our long-enjoyed privilege of the play of the Naubath on our rampart. As to our leaving the fort, let it be observed that, even when the direst calamities befell us, we never left this place for any other, and that we have here enjoyed all kinds of prosperity and affluence. We have, moreover, never incurred the displeasure of the Circar, that we should thus be ordered to leave the fort for good. But if you should think it desirable to mark the difference be-