so notorious as the Bígam Sombre. She has been described as small and plump, with a fair complexion, and large animated eyes. She possessed great talents, the power of influencing others, and was utterly unscrupulous.
After his marriage with Zeb-úl-Nissa Sombre acted on the principle of offering his brigade to the highest bidder. Somehow he always commanded a good price. In 1776 he accepted service under Mirza Najaf Khan, the commander-in-chief of the Moghol army, after having shared in the defeat inflicted by that leader upon his patrons, the Játs, at Barsána the previous year. The following year the Court of Dehli conferred upon him the principality known as Sirdhána, yielding an annual rental of six lakhs of rupees. This territory was nominally granted to Sombre for the payment of the troops under his command, but upon his death, 4th May, 1778, it passed to Zeb-úl-Nissa, thenceforth known in history as the Bígam Sombre or Samrú.
After Sombre's death the brigade was commanded under the Bígam first by one Pauly, a German who was taken prisoner by Mahomed Beg Hamdání, and executed, in breach of a solemn promise, in 1783. After the murder of Pauly, "three Frenchmen," writes Major L. F. Smith, "Messieurs Baours, Evens, and Dudrenec, successively commanded and gladly retired." In 1793, the Bígam married her then chief officer, M. Le Vaisseau, "a man of birth, talents and pride of character,"[1] who shot
- ↑ Major L. F. Smith.
