H. H. THE Nawab of Banganapalli. 7
Khan and Saiyid Mustafa Ali Khan. But as the children were then of tender age and in poor health, the widow did not wish to subject them to the trying hardships which a long journey to Mysore would entail, and so delayed paying her respects to Tippu at his capital. This, the over-exacting and impulsive Tippu Sultan, construed into a deliberate slight, and instantly ordered the confiscation to the State, of the Jaghir of Banganapalli. A sense of her helpless position and misery struck her as if a keen shaft had pierced her brain, and her usual strength of mind and firmness under trial which had hitherto so often stood her in good stead now failed her, and in despair, she went away to Furrooknagar with her children. 'There, it so happened that on a certain day when Nizam Ali Khan, the then Nizam of Hyderabad, set out on a walk, he saw the four boys (her sons), who, though dressed so shabbily as to evidence their extreme destitution, deported themselves with much sober dignity falling in a line and making their obeisance to the sovereign in a manner which only the sons of noblemen learn as a part of their training. The Nizam who was struck by this inconsistency between their noble deportment and their needy appearance, called the boys to him, and asked them to tell him who they were. They related their melancholy history; on hearing which, the Nizam was moved with compassion for them, and directed them to appear the I next day before the Minister, Musheer-ul-Mulk. They ' did so, and were told that they w^ould be the recipients of an annual allowance of Eupees 3,000 each. Saiyid Hussain Ali Khan, their paternal uncle, who was in hiding at the time to escape the anger of Tippu against his family was sent for by the Nizam, and had much wealth and honor conferred upon him. » Of the four sons
