He therefore hired a gang of Bhuduk dacoits from the neighbouring forest of the Oude Tarae to put him to death, after he had been four months at Bhinga.

During this time Mrs.Ravenscroft had gone on one occasion to Cawnpoor, and on another to Secrora, on business.
Bhinga lies fifty miles north-east from Secrora, where the 20th Regiment of Native Infantry, under the command of Colonel Patton, was then cantoned.

On the 6th of May 1823, Ensign Platt, of that corps, had come out to see him.

In the evening, the old Rajah and his second and third sons came to visit Mr.Ravenscroft as usual, and they sat conversing with the family on the most friendly terms till nine o'clock, when they took leave, and Mrs.Ravenscroft, with her child and two female attendants, retired to the sleeping-room in the house.
Ensign Platt went to his small sleeping-tent outside the quadrangle, under a mango-tree.

This tent was just large enough to admit his small cot, and a few block-tin travelling-boxes, which he piled away inside, to the right and left of his bed.