to the ground. The soldiers, taking their cue from their leader, discharged their pistols, mortally wounding Dawes. Samebrooke, who had escaped injury by some miracle, ran forward to the help of the Agent and was promptly knocked down and secured by the soldiers. Meanwhile, Nathaniel Foxcroft, having obtained his pistols from his room on the ground floor, appeared on the scene with the object of making a good fight on his own account. In a brief space of time, however, he was also secured.
The revolution was now complete. It only remained for Winter to give effect to it by assuming office. This he did by making a solemn declaration that he had accepted the chief direction of affairs upon the unanimous request of the Company's officials and that he would discharge the duties until it should be ordered otherwise either by the plurality of the Council or by the Court. Almost simultaneously Winter forwarded to the Directors a dispatch seeking to vindicate his action on the ground of the traitorous and seditious conduct of the Foxcrofts. He also wrote to the King, to the Archbishop of Canterbury and to the Royal Commander at Bombay, giving a narrative of the course of events.
When the facts were known in England the Directors sought the intervention of the King to secure the withdrawal of Winter from his usurped position. Armed with a Royal proclamation promising a pardon to Winter and his accomplices if they surrendered peacefully, an Agent named Clavell was sent out to arrange matters. Meanwhile, the Winter faction had been strengthened in their resolve to maintain their position by the support they had received from the Royal Commander in Bombay, who had gone the length of issuing a proclamation denouncing the Foxcrofts
