Page:Warren Hastings (Trotter).djvu/41

Rh hardt, known to Englishmen by his nickname of Sombre, which the natives turned into Sumru, was an Alsatian soldier of fortune, who had transferred his services from one flag to another, until he rose to high command under the Nawáb of Bengal. This ruffian, who had once deserted from an English regiment, cheerfully undertook the butcher's business for which none of Kásim's native officers would volunteer.

On the 5th October, 1763, nearly two hundred men, women, and children, were shot down or cut to pieces in Sumru's presence by two companies of his Sepoys. Many of the prisoners fought for their lives with brickbats, bottles, anything that came to hand. Their very executioners begged that weapons should be furnished to their victims, since the butchering of unarmed men was no fit work for armed soldiers. But Sumru struck down some of the murmurers, and the rest were driven to complete their repulsive task. Ellis himself, with more than fifty civil or military officers, was among the slain. Another victim was the same Lushington who, after surviving the horrors of the Black Hole, had served as Hastings' chief assistant at Murshidábád. Of all the prisoners at Patná one man only, Dr. Fullarton, was spared, to join Adams presently on his upward march. The bodies of the murdered, one of them still breathing, were thrown into the nearest well.

On the 6th November, 1763, Patná was stormed by Adams' heroic little army. A week later they were