Page:Lord Amherst and the British Advance Eastwards to Burma.djvu/196

188 'On the 28th,' says Lady Amherst, 'we encamped under the walls of Díg, where a battle took place between Lord Lake's army and Holkar's in 1803. The former took it by storm. The palace is the finest we have met with in India: it stands in the midst of a large and very beautiful garden, with fountains and orange groves—it is to be regretted that it is not inhabited. The town is crowded with monkeys, which are looked on as sacred, and worshipped by the natives.' Although the monkeys are sacred at Bhartpur, we read that at Díg and in all this part of the country, female infants are put to death as soon as they are born.

Muttra and Brindában are visited in due course. On Feb. 3, 1827, they encamp at Koosi, where Major Fielding (assistant to the Resident at Gwalior) tells Lady Amherst an anecdote of Hindu Ráo, brother of Baiza Bái, Sindhia's favourite wife. ' His servants had not received their pay for many months; their distress at last was so great, that they deputed twelve men to represent their piteous case. Hindu Ráo heard what they had to say, and then calling aloud to his Mewátis, a body of armed men rushed into the room and the twelve wretched servants were cut into pieces in a moment. I asked whether Sindhia, who was reported a mild man, had taken any notice of Hindu Ráo's ferocity. He replied no, it is the custom of the country.'

'Accounts arrived to-day,' Lady Amherst continues, 'that Sindhia is sinking, and Baiza Bái and his other