Benoît de Boigne resigned. Once more unemployed, he returned to Lucknow. Commercial life and first marriage Back in Lucknow, Benoît de Boigne found his old friends Antoine-Louis Polier and Claude Martin. Martin persuaded de Boigne to work with him in trade. His military skills were useful, for at the time, Indian trade routes were dangerous, and even warehouses in the cities were sometimes robbed. Claude Martin and Benoît de Boigne built a warehouse inside an old fort. It included saferooms and a trained armed guard to watch it. Quickly, this business became successful. De Boigne also carried on a trade in precious stones, copper, gold, silver, indigo, cashmere shawls, silks, and spices. He became rich and now owned a luxurious house with many servants, a wine-cellar, and valuable horses. At this time, de Boigne fell in love with a young woman from Delhi known as Nur Begum ("light" in Arabic). Her name was Halime Banu or HalimeBanu BanuHalime. She was the daughter of a colonel in the Persian Guard of the Great Moghul, whom he had met to discuss a simple lawsuit. The same day, he asked the colonel for his daughter's hand in marriage. After a long discussion, the father accepted, even though de Boigne refused to convert to Islam as was normally required for the husband of a Muslim woman. De Boigne wooed Noor, who could speak perfect English. The wedding lasted several days, first in Delhi, with sumptuous feasts, then more simply in Lucknow. The couple had two children, a daughter, Banu, or Anna (1789–1804) and a son Ali Bakhsh (otherwise Charles Alexander born in 1792. He visited England in 1797 with his wife and their two young children. A general in the service of the Maratha empire, with the title of jaghir In 1788, Sindhia sent a discreet message to de Boigne. Sindhia wished to unite north and northwest India. At the time, the Rajputs and the Marathas had a tense relationship. The Marathas were levying the peasants with more taxes. Sindhia succeeded in convincing de Boigne to return to his service. He asked him to organize a brigade of 12,000 men within a year (January 1789-January 1790). De Boigne became commander-in-chief and general, the highest title under "rajah." To be able to pay his men, Sindhia gave his new general a jaghir, a fief given for the lifetime of its holder, against a payment in