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Machine transcription
about. The few misguided rebels who had
been foolish enough to attack the city, they
said, would soon have cause to regret their
folly. But the King had by now fully realized
the unwisdom of his past actions and was
sorry for having dismissed those straight-
forward and trustworthy officers who alone
could have been relied upon in his hour of
need. He sent messages of distress to all
parts of the country, calling for levies.
People in large numbers hurried to the
capital in the hope of receiving ample
rewards in case of success and a goodly share
of plunder in case of defeat and collapse of
the Government. The city was choked with
these unwelcome guests from different clans,
and the citizens were greatly harassed.
The royal magazines were thrown open;
arms and ammunition were freely distributed
among the new-comers and those who offered
their services. Everybody who could approach
the government officers was favoured with
a rifle and a few rounds of cartridges.
When the news of this lavish and indiscrimi-
nate distribution of arms and ammunition
spread far and wide, large numbers of people
flocked to the city. Taking advantage of this
33
C
Roughly two thirds of characters agree with a modern printed edition of the same text. Much of the disagreement is editorial, not misreading. Treat the transcription as a finding aid and read the page image before quoting. How this was measured.