Lieutenant John Gordon of the Dundurcus family, massacred at Patna

27
gardens, and was due to enter Patna next day.
The people busied themselves with mounting guns
on the bastions.
Mir Kasim left to himself might have paused,
for, if we are to believe Smith, it was "Sombre"
who put him up to the massacre. The Nawab,
himself, "staited with horror at the diabolical
idea of treacherously murdering the English in
cold blood and refused." Smith goes on to declare
that what was too villainous for the natives was
"not too atrocious for the sanguinary temper of
Sombre," who undertook "the criminal commission
with ardour and alacrity."
Only one witness lived to tell the tale, namely,
Fullarton. This part of his story is better known
than the other, having been printed in 1765, in
"Original Papers relative to the Disturbances ::i
Bengal, 1759-1764" (ii. 294-300). He says:-
Oct. 5.— "Mr Ellis with the rest of the gentle-
men were inhumanely butchered by Shumroo,
who came that evening to the place with two
companies of Sepoys (lie had the day before sent
for all the knives and forks of the gentlemen).
He surrounded the house with his people, and
went into a little outer squaie, and sent for
Messrs Ellis, Hay, and Lushington. And with them
came six other gentlemen, who were all terribly
mangled and cut to pieces, and their bodies
thrown into a well in the square, and it filled up.
Then the Sepoys were sent into the large square,
and fired on the gentlemen there, and, rushing
upon them, cut them into pieces in the most
inhuman manner; and they were thrown into
another well, which was likewise filled up."
Oct. 6.— Anderson taking up the tale on this
date writes : —"Heard this morning that Mr Ellis
and 47 gentlemen were cut off last night, so that
doubtless our fate must be sealed in 24 hours,
for which God prepare us all."
Here Anderson's diary ends. On the same day
he wrote to his friend, Surgeon Davidson, as
follows : —"Dear Davidson,— Since my last, His Ex-
cellency has been completely defeated, and in
consequence obliged to retreat to Jaffir Cawn's
gardens; and purposes coming into the
city to-day. Sumero with the Sepoys arrived
here last night, and I suppose to effect his wicked
designs, for last night Mr Ellis and 48 gentlemen
were murdered, and as almost an equal number
remains, of soldiers and us, I expect my fate this
night. Dear Davidson, this is no surprise to me,
for I have all along expected it. I must, there-