All this while the adopted son of the former _peshwa_ [Footnote: Formerly
a chief of the Mahrattas.--Ed.] was living at Bithoor, about six miles
from Cawnpore. His real name was Dandhu Panth, but he is better known as
Nana Sahib. The British Government had refused to award him the absurd
life pension of eighty thousand pounds sterling, which had been granted
to his nominal father; but he had inherited at least half a million from
the ex-peshwa; and he was allowed to keep six guns, to entertain as many
followers as he pleased, and to live in half royal state in a
castellated palace at Bithoor. He continued to nurse his grievance with
all the pertinacity of a Mahratta; but at the same time he professed a
great love for European society, and was profuse in his hospitalities to
English officers. He was popularly known as the Raja of Bithoor.
When the news arrived of the revolt at Meerut on May 10th, Nana was loud
in his professions of attachment to the English. He engaged to organize
fifteen hundred fighting men to act against the sepoys in the event of
an outbreak.
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