Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 1.3.2

1.3.2

After so strange an anecdote, (and I have heard of twenty more such stories) the reader has a right to ask me my voucher, as I was not present myself. Here it is: The man himself had been an acquaintance of mine about ten years ago at Moorshoodabad, where I used to make him dine with me sometimes, giving him plenty of liquor, whereas I never drink any myself. As he was a handsome young fellow, and in high favour with some Ladies, he, when once in his cups, used not only to mention their names at length, (the very thing for which I sought his company) but he had such a knack at mimicking their particular tones of voices, and some other particulars in a day of engagement, as would have raised a horse-laugh in a dead man. As I was just landed at Benares, and examining the sculptures in a famous Gentoo chapel, in Sevaleni, (the very critical spot where the tragedy had been acted but a year before, and where Saadet-Ally himself lived) the man perceived me and came down; and I found that he was in the Prince's service at a hundred rupees per month, on condition of furnishing four horsemen more at fifty rupees each. He invited me to see his lodgings, a genteel seat, full of sculptures; and, to oblige him, I carried two bottles of liqueurs.