Note 176 — CHAP. VI.

Orme, from whom we have taken the above facts, adds, "His (Omichund's) brother-in-law, Hazarimul, who had the chief management of his affairs, concealed himself in the apartments of the women until the next day, when the guard, endeavouring to take him, was resisted by the whole body of Omichund's peons and armed domestics, amounting to three hundred. Several were wounded on both sides before the fray ended; during which the head of the peons, who was an Indian of high caste, set fire to the house; and, in order to save the women of the family from the dishonour of being exposed to strangers, entered their apartments and killed, it is said, thirteen of them with his own hand, after which he stabbed himself, but, contrary to his intention, not mortally."