Three Frenchmen in Bengal / The Commercial Ruin of the French Settlements in 1757

Writing in 1725, the French naval commander, the Chevalier d'Albert, tells us that the three most handsome towns on the Ganges were Calcutta, Chandernagore, and Chinsurah, the chief Factories of the English, French, and Dutch. These towns were all situated within thirty miles of each other. Calcutta, the latest founded, was the greatest and the richest, owing partly to its situation, which permitted the largest ships of the time to anchor at its quays, and partly to the privilege enjoyed by the English merchants of trading freely as individuals through the length and breadth of the land.

Native merchants and native artisans crowded to Calcutta, and the French and Dutch, less advantageously situated and hampered by restrictions of trade, had no chance of competing with the English on equal terms. The same was of course true of their minor establishments in the interior. All three nations had important Factories at Cossimbazar (in the neighbourhood of Murshidabad, the Capital of Bengal) and at Dacca, and minor Factories at Jugdea or Luckipore, and at Balasore. The French and Dutch had also Factories at Patna. Besides Calcutta, Chandernagore, and Chinsurah, the only Factory which was fortified was the English Factory at Cossimbazar.

During the long reign of the usurper, Aliverdi Khan,[1] that strong and politic ruler enforced peace among his European guests, and forbade any fortification of the Factories, except such as was necessary to protect them against possible incursions of the Marathas, who at that time made periodical attacks on Muhammadans and Hindus alike to enforce the payment of the chauth,[2] or blackmail, which they levied upon all the countries within their reach. In Southern India the English and French had been constantly at war whenever there was war in Europe, but in Bengal the strength of the Government, the terror of the Marathas, and the general weakness of the Europeans had contrived to enforce a neutrality. Still there was nothing to guarantee its continuance if the fear of the native Government and of the Marathas were once removed, and if any one of the three nations happened to find itself much stronger than the others. The fear of the Marathas had nearly disappeared, but that of the Government still remained. However, it was not till more than sixty years after the foundation of Calcutta that there appeared any possibility of a breach of peace amongst the Europeans in Bengal. During this time the three Factories, Calcutta always leading, increased rapidly in wealth and importance. To the Government they were already a cause of anxiety and an object of greed. Even during the life of Aliverdi Khan there were many of his counsellors who advised the reduction of the status of Europeans to that of the Armenians, i.e. mere traders at the mercy of local officials; but Aliverdi Khan, whether owing to the enfeeblement of his energies by age or to an intelligent recognition of the value of European commerce, would not allow any steps to be taken against the Europeans. Many stories are told of the debates in his Durbar[3] on this subject: according to one, he is reported to have compared the Europeans to bees who produce honey when left in peace, but furiously attack those who foolishly disturb them; according to another he compared them to a fire[4] which had come out of the sea and was playing harmlessly on the shore, but which would devastate the whole land if any one were so imprudent as to anger it. His wisdom died with him, and in April, 1756, his grandson, Siraj-ud-daula, a young man of nineteen,[5] already notorious for his debauchery and cruelty, came to the throne. The French-who, of all Europeans, knew him best, for he seems to have preferred them to all others-say his chief characteristics were cruelty, rapacity, and cowardice. In his public speeches he seemed to be ambitious of military fame. Calcutta was described to him as a strong fortress, full of wealth, which belonged largely to his native subjects, and inhabited by a race of foreigners who had grown insolent on their privileges. As a proof of this, it was pointed out that they had not presented him with the offerings which, according to Oriental custom, are the due of a sovereign on his accession. The only person who dared oppose the wishes of the young Nawab was his mother,[6] but her advice was of no avail, and her taunt that he, a soldier, was going to war upon mere traders, was equally inefficacious. The records of the time give no definite information as to the tortuous diplomacy which fanned the quarrel between him and the English, but it is sufficiently clear that the English refused to surrender the son of one of his uncle's diwans,[7] who, with his master's and his father's wealth, had betaken himself to Calcutta. Siraj-ud-daula, by the treacherous promises of his commanders, made himself master of the English Factory at Cossimbazar without firing a shot, and on the 20th of June, 1756, found himself in possession of Fort William, the fortified Factory of Calcutta.[8] The Governor, the commandant[9] of the troops, and some two hundred persons of lesser note, had deserted the Fort almost as soon as it was actually invested, and Holwell, one of the councillors, an ex-surgeon, and the gallant few who stood by him and continued the defence, were captured, and, to the number of 146, cast into a little dungeon,[10] intended for military offenders, from which, the next morning, only twenty-three came out alive. The English took refuge at Fulta, thirty miles down the river, where the Nawab, in his pride and ignorance, left them unmolested. There they were gradually reinforced from Madras, first by Major Kilpatrick, and later on by Colonel Clive and Admiral Watson. About the same time both French and English learned that war had been declared in Europe between England and France in the previous May, but, for different reasons, neither nation thought the time suitable for making the fact formally known.

Towards the end of December the English, animated by the desire of revenge and of repairing their ruined fortunes, advanced on Calcutta, and on the 2nd of January, 1757, the British flag again floated over Fort William. The Governor, Manik Chand, was, like many of the Nawab's servants, a Hindu. Some say he was scared away by a bullet through his turban; others, that he was roused from the enjoyment of a nautch-a native dance-by the news of the arrival of the English.[11] Hastening to Murshidabad, he reported his defeat, and asserted that the British they had now to deal with were very different from those they had driven from or captured in Calcutta.

The English were not satisfied with recovering Calcutta. They wished to impress the Nawab, and so they sent a small force to Hugli, which lies above Chandernagore and Chinsurah, stormed the Muhammadan fort, burnt the town, and destroyed the magazines, which would have supplied the Nawab's army in an attack on Calcutta. The inhabitants of the country had never known anything so terrible as the big guns of the ships, and the Nawab actually believed the men-of-war could ascend the river and bombard him in his palace at Murshidabad. Calling on the French and Dutch for aid, which they refused, he determined to try his fortune a second time at Calcutta. At first, everything seemed the same as on the former occasion: the native merchants and artisans disappeared from the town; but it was not as he thought, out of fear, but because the English wished to have them out of the way, and so expelled them. Except for the military camp to the north of the city, where Clive was stationed with his little army, the town lay open to his attack. Envoys from Calcutta soon appeared asking for terms, and the Nawab pretended to be willing to negotiate in order to gain time while he outflanked Clive and seized the town. Seeing through this pretence Watson and Clive thought it was time to give him a lesson, and, on the morning of the 5th of February, in the midst of a dense fog, Clive beat up his quarters. Though Clive had to retire when the whole army was roused, the slaughter amongst the enemy had been immense; and though he mockingly informed the Nawab that he had been careful to "injure none but those who got in his way," the Nawab himself narrowly escaped capture. The action, however, was in no sense decisive. Most of the Nawab's military leaders were eager to avenge their disgrace, but some of the chief nobles, notably his Hindu advisers, exaggerated the loss already incurred and the future danger, and advised him to make peace. In fact, the cruelty and folly of the Nawab had turned his Court into a nest of traitors. With one or two exceptions there was not a man of note upon whom he could rely, and he had not the wit to distinguish the faithful from the unfaithful. Accordingly he granted the English everything they asked for-the full restoration of all their privileges, and restitution of all they had lost in the sack of Calcutta. As the English valued their losses at several hundreds of thousands, and the Nawab had found only some ￡5000 in the treasury of Fort William, it is clear that the wealth of Calcutta was either sunk in the Ganges or had fallen as booty into the hands of the Moorish soldiers.

Siraj-ud-daula, though he did not yet know it, was a ruined man when he returned to his capital. His only chance of safety lay in one of two courses-either a loyal acceptance of the conditions imposed by the English or a loyal alliance with the French against the English. From the Dutch he could hope for nothing. They were as friendly to the English as commercial rivals could be. They had always declared they were mere traders and would not fight, and they kept their word. After the capture of Calcutta the Nawab had exacted heavy contributions from both the French and Dutch; but France and England were now at war, and he thought it might be possible that in these circumstances the restoration of their money to the French and the promise of future privileges might win them to his side. He could not, however, decide finally on either course, and the French were not eager to meet him. They detested his character, and they preferred, if the English would agree, to preserve the old neutrality and to trade in peace. Further, they had received no supplies of men or money for a long time; the fortifications of Chandernagore, i.e. of Fort d'Orléans, were practically in ruins, and the lesser Factories in the interior were helpless. Their military force, for attack, was next to nothing: all they could offer was wise counsel and brave leaders. They were loth to offer these to a man like the Nawab against Europeans, and he and his Court were as loth to accept them. Unluckily for the French, deserters from Chandernagore had served the Nawab's artillery when he took Calcutta, and it was even asserted that the French had supplied the Nawab with gunpowder; and so when the English heard of these new negotiations, they considered the proposals for a neutrality to be a mere blind; they forgot the kindness shown by the French to English refugees at Dacca, Cossimbazar, and Chandernagore, and determined that, as a permanent peace with the Nawab was out of the question, they would, whilst he hesitated as to his course of action, anticipate him by destroying the one element of force which, if added to his power, might have made him irresistible. They continued the negotiations for a neutrality on the Ganges only until they were reinforced by a body of 500 Europeans from Bombay, when they sent back the French envoys and exacted permission from the Nawab to attack Chandernagore. Clive marched on that town with a land force of 4000 Europeans and Sepoys, and Admiral Watson proceeded up the river with a small but powerful squadron.

Thus began the ruin of the French in Bengal. The chief French Factories were, as I have said, at Chandernagore, Cossimbazar, and Dacca. The Chiefs of these Factories were M. Renault, the Director of all the French in Bengal; M. Law, a nephew of the celebrated Law of Lauriston, the financier; and M. Courtin. It is the doings and sufferings of these three gallant men which are recorded in the following chapters. They had no hope of being able to resist the English by themselves, but they hoped, and actually believed, that France would send them assistance if they could only hold out till it arrived. Renault, whose case was the most desperate, perhaps thought that the Nawab would, in his own interest, support him if the English attacked Chandernagore; but knowing the Nawab as well as he did, and reflecting that he had himself refused the Nawab assistance when he asked for it, his hope must have been a feeble one. Still he could not, with honour, give up a fortified position without attempting a defence, and he determined to do his best. When he failed, all that Law and Courtin could expect to do was to maintain their personal liberty and create a diversion in the north of Bengal when French forces attacked it in the south. It was not their fault that the attack was never made.

I shall make no mention of the fate of the Factories at Balasore and Jugdea. At these the number of Frenchmen was so very small that resistance and escape were equally hopeless. Patna lay on the line of Law's retreat, and, as we shall see, he was joined by the second and other subordinate officers of that Factory. The chief, M. de la Bretesche, was too ill to be moved, but he managed, by the assistance of his native friends, to secure a large portion of the property of the French East India Company, and so to finance Law during his wanderings.

Notes:

[1: Aliverdi Khan entered Muxadavad or Murshidabad as a conqueror on the 30th of March, 1742. He died on the 10th of April, 1756. (Scrafton.)]

[2: Literally the fourth part of the Revenues. The Marathas extorted the right to levy this from the Emperor Aurengzebe, and under pretext of collecting it they ravaged a large portion of India.]

[3: Court, or Court officials and nobles.]

[4: Such fires are mentioned in many Indian legends. In the "Arabian Nights" we read of a demon changing himself into a flaming fire.]

[5: His age is stated by some as nineteen, by others as about twenty-five. See note, p. 66.]

[6: Amina Begum.]

[7: Diwan, i.e. Minister or Manager.]

[8: The English at Dacca surrendered to the Nawab of that place, and were afterwards released. Those at Jugdea and Balasore escaped direct to Fulta.]

[9: Captain George Minchin.]

[10: Known in history as the Black Hole of Calcutta.]

[11: Both stories may be true. Manik Chand was nearly killed at the battle of Budge Budge by a bullet passing through his turban, and the incident of the nautch may have happened at Calcutta, where he certainly showed less courage.]

* * *

The French East India Company was founded in 1664, during the ministry of M. Colbert. Chandernagore, on the Ganges, or rather that mouth of it now known as the River Hugli, was founded in 1676; and in 1688 the town and territory were ceded to France by the Emperor Aurengzebe. I know of no plan of Chandernagore in the 17th century, and those of the 18th are extremely rare.

Two or three are to be found in Paris, but the destruction of the Fort and many of the buildings by the English after its capture in 1757, and the decay of the town after its restoration to the French, owing to diminished trade, make it extremely difficult to recognize old landmarks. The Settlement, however, consisted of a strip of land, about two leagues in length and one in depth, on the right or western bank of the Hugli. Fort d'Orléans lay in the middle of the river front. It was commenced in 1691, and finished in 1693.[12] Facing the north was the Porte Royale, and to the east, or river-side, was the Water Gate. The north-eastern bastion was known as that of the Standard, or Pavillon. The north-western bastion was overlooked by the Jesuit Church, and the south-eastern by the Dutch Octagon. This last building was situated on one of a number of pieces of land which, though within the French bounds, belonged to the Dutch before the grant of the imperial charter, and which the Dutch had always refused to sell. The Factory buildings were in the Fort itself. To the west lay the Company's Tank, the hospitals, and the cemetery. European houses, interspersed with native dwellings, lay all around. M. d'Albert says that these houses were large and convenient, but chiefly of one story only, built along avenues of fine trees, or along the handsome quay. D'Albert also mentions a chapel in the Fort,[13] the churches of the Jesuits and the Capucins, and some miserable pagodas belonging to the Hindus, who, owing to the necessity of employing them as clerks and servants, were allowed the exercise of their religion. In his time the Europeans numbered about 500. There were besides some 400 Armenians, Moors[14] and Topasses, 1400 to 1500 Christians, including slaves, and 18,000 to 20,000 Gentiles, divided, he says, into 52 different castes or occupations. It is to be supposed that the European houses had improved in the thirty years since d'Albert's visit; at any rate many of those which were close to the Fort now commanded its interior from their roofs or upper stories, exactly as the houses of the leading officials in Calcutta commanded the interior of Fort William. No other fact could be so significant of the security which the Europeans in Bengal believed they enjoyed from any attack by the forces of the native Government. The site of the Fort is now covered with native huts. The Cemetery still remains and the Company's Tank (now known as Lal Dighi), whilst Kooti Ghat is the old landing-place of Fort d'Orleans.

As regards the European population at the time of the siege we have no definite information. The Returns drawn up by the French officials at the time of the capitulation do not include the women and children or the native and mixed population. The ladies,[15] and it is to be presumed the other women also, for there is no mention of women during the siege, retired to the Dutch and Danish settlements at Chinsurah and Serampore a few days before, and the native population disappeared as soon as the British army approached. The Returns therefore show only 538 Europeans and 66 Topasses. The Governor or Director, as already mentioned, was Pierre Renault: his Council consisted of MM. Fournier, Caillot, Laporterie, Nicolas, and Picques. There were 36 Frenchmen of lesser rank in the Company's service, as well as 6 surgeons. The troops were commanded by M. de Tury and 10 officers. There were also 10 officers of the French East India Company's vessels, and 107 persons of sufficient importance for their parole to be demanded when the Fort fell. Apparently these Returns do not include those who were killed in the defence, nor have we any definite information as to the number of French sepoys, but Eyre Coote[16] says there were 500.

The story of the siege is to be gathered from many accounts. M. Renault and his Council submitted an official report; Renault wrote many letters to Dupleix and other patrons or friends; several of the Council and other private persons did the same.[17] M. Jean Law, whose personal experiences we shall deal with in the next chapter, was Chief of Cossimbazar, and watched the siege, as it were, from the outside. His straightforward narrative helps us now and then to correct a mis-statement made by the besieged in the bitterness of defeat. On the English side, besides the Bengal records, there are Clive's and Eyre Coote's military journals, the Logs of the British ships of war, and the journal of Surgeon Edward Ives of His Majesty's ship Kent. Thus this passage of arms, almost the only one in Bengal[18] in which the protagonists were Europeans, is no obscure event, but one in which almost every incident was seen and described from opposite points of view. This multiplicity of authorities makes it difficult to form a connected narrative, and, in respect to many incidents, I shall have to follow that account which seems to enter into the fullest or most interesting detail.

It will now be necessary to go back a little. After the capture of Calcutta in June, 1756, the behaviour of the Nawab to all Europeans was so overbearing that Renault found it necessary to ask the Superior Council of Pondicherry for reinforcements, but all that he received was 67 Europeans and 167 Sepoys. No money was sent him, and every day he expected to hear that war had broken out between France and England.

"Full of these inquietudes, gentlemen, I was in the

most cruel embarrassment, knowing not even what to

desire. A strong detestation of the tyranny of the Nawab,

and of the excesses which he was committing against

Europeans, made me long for the arrival of the English in

the Ganges to take vengeance for them. At the same time

I feared the consequences of war being declared. In every

letter M. de Leyrit[19] impressed upon me the necessity of

fortifying Chandernagore as best I could, and of putting the

town in a state of security against a surprise, but you have

only to look at Chandernagore to see how difficult it was for

us, absolutely destitute as we were of men and money, to do

this with a town open on all sides, and with nothing even to

mark it off from the surrounding country."[20]

He goes on to describe Fort d'Orléans-

"almost in the middle of the settlement, surrounded by

houses, which command it, a square of about 600 feet,[21]

built of brick, flanked with four bastions, with six guns

each, without ramparts or glacis. The southern curtain,

about 4 feet thick, not raised to its full height, was

provided only with a battery of 3 guns; there was a similar

battery to the west, but the rest of the west curtain was

only a wall of mud and brick, about a foot and a half thick,

and 8 or 10 feet high; there were warehouses ranged

against the east curtain which faced the Ganges, and which

was still in process of construction; the whole of this side

had no ditch, and that round the other sides was dry, only 4

feet in depth, and a mere ravine. The walls of the Fort up

to the ramparts were 15 feet high, and the houses, on the

edge of the counterscarp, which commanded it, were as much

as 30 feet."

Perhaps the Fort was best defended on the west, where the Company's Tank[22] was situated. Its bank was only about twelve feet from the Fort Ditch. This use of tanks for defensive purposes was an excellent one, as they also provided the garrison with a good supply of drinking water. A little later Clive protected his great barracks at Berhampur with a line of large tanks along the landward side. However, this tank protected one side only, and the task of holding such a fort with an inadequate garrison was not a hopeful one even for a Frenchman. It was only his weakness which had made Renault submit to pay the contribution demanded by the Nawab on his triumphant return from Calcutta in July of the previous year, and he and his comrades felt very bitterly the neglect of the Company in not sending money and reinforcements. One of his younger subordinates wrote to a friend in Pondicherry:[23]-

"But the 3-1/2 lahks that the Company has to pay to the

Nawab, is that a trifle? Yes, my dear fellow, for I should

like it to have to pay still more, to teach it how to leave

this Factory, which is, beyond contradiction, the finest of its

settlements, denuded of soldiers and munitions of war, so

that it is not possible for us to show our teeth."

The wish was prophetic.

Like the English the French were forbidden by the Nawab to fortify themselves. Renault dared not pay attention to this order. He had seen what had happened to the English by the neglect of proper precautions, and when things were at their worst, the Nawab had to seek his alliance against the English, grant him leave to fortify Chandernagore, and, later on, even to provide him with money under the pretence that he was simply restoring the sum forcibly extorted from him the previous year.[24] Trade was at a standstill, and Renault was determined that if the enemies of his nation were destined to take the Company's property, they should have the utmost difficulty possible in doing so. He expended the money on provisions and ammunition. At the same time, that he might not lose any chance of settling affairs peaceably with the English, he refused to associate himself with the Nawab, and entered upon negotiations for a neutrality in the Ganges. To protect himself if these failed, he began raising fortifications and pulling down the houses which commanded the Fort or masked its fire.

He could not pull down the houses on the south of the Fort, from which Clive subsequently made his attack, partly for want of time, partly because the native workmen ran away, and partly because of the bad feeling prevalent in the motley force which formed his garrison.[25] The most fatal defect of all was the want of a military engineer. The person who held that position had been sent from France. He was a master mason, and had no knowledge of engineering. It had been the same story in Calcutta. Drake's two engineers had been a subaltern in the military and a young covenanted servant. Renault had to supervise the fortifications himself.

"I commenced to pull down the church and the house

of the Jesuit fathers, situated on the edge of the Ditch, also

all the houses of private persons which masked the entire

north curtain. The wood taken from the ruins of these

served to construct a barrier extending from bastion to

bastion and supporting this same north curtain, which

seemed ready to fall to pieces from old age."

This barrier was placed four feet outside the wall, the intervening space being filled in with earth.

"Also in front of Porte Royale" (i.e. outside the gate in

the avenue), "the weakest side of the Fort, I placed a battery

of 3 guns, and worked hard at clearing out and enlarging

the Ditch, but there was no time to make it of any use as a

defence. A warehouse on which I put bales of gunny[26] to

prevent cannon balls from breaking in the vaults of the roof,

served it as a casemate."

The east or river curtain was left alone. The French were, in fact, so confident that the ships of war would not be able to force their way up the river, and that Clive would not therefore think of attacking on that side, that the only precaution they took at first was the erection of two batteries outside the Fort. It is a well-known maxim in war that one should attack at that point at which the enemy deems himself most secure, and it will be seen that all Clive's efforts were aimed at preparing for Admiral Watson to attack on the east.

As regards artillery Renault was better off.

"The alarm which the Prince" (Siraj-ud-daula) "gave us

in June last having given me reason to examine into the

state of the artillery, I found that not one of the carriages

of the guns on the ramparts was in a serviceable condition,

not a field-piece mounted, not a platform ready for the

mortars. I gave all my attention to these matters, and

fortunately had time to put them right."

To serve his guns Renault had the sailors of the Company's ship, Saint Contest, whose commander, M. de la Vigne Buisson, was the soul of the defence.

About this time he received a somewhat doubtful increase to his garrison, a crowd of deserters from the English East India Company's forces. The latter at this time were composed of men of all nationalities, English, Germans, Swiss, Dutch, and even French. Many of them, and naturally the foreigners especially, were ready to desert upon little provocation. The hardships of service in a country where the climate and roads were execrable, where food and pay were equally uncertain, and where promises were made not to be kept, were provocations which the best soldiers might have found it difficult to resist. We read of whole regiments in the English and French services refusing to obey orders, and of mutinies of officers as well as of men. The one reward of service was the chance of plunder, and naturally, then, as soon as the fighting with the Nawab had stopped for a time, the desertions from the British forces were numerous. Colonel Clive had more than once written to Renault to remonstrate with him for taking British soldiers into his service. Probably Renault could have retorted the accusation with justice-at any rate, he went on enlisting deserters; and from those who had now come over he formed a company of grenadiers of 50 men, one of artillery of 30, and one of sailors of 60, wisely giving them a little higher pay than usual, "to excite their emulation." One of these was a man named Lee,-

"a corporal and a deserter from the Tyger, who pledged

himself to the enemy that he would throw two shells out of

three into the Tyger, but whilst he was bringing the mortars

to bear for that purpose, he was disabled by a musket bullet

from the Kent's tops. He was afterwards sent home a

prisoner to England."[27]

As might be expected the younger Frenchmen were wild with delight at the chance of seeing a good fight. Some of them had been much disappointed that the Nawab had not attacked Chandernagore in June, 1756. One of them wrote[28]-

"I was charmed with the adventure and the chance

of carrying a musket, having always had" (what Frenchman

hasn't?) "a secret leaning towards a military life. I

intended to kill a dozen Moors myself in the first sortie we

made, for I was determined not to stand like a stock on a

bastion, where one only runs the risk of getting wounds

without having any of the pleasure of inflicting them."

If not the highest form of military spirit, this was at any rate one of which a good commander might make much use. Renault took advantage of this feeling, and from the young men of the colony, such as Company's servants, ships' officers, supercargoes, and European inhabitants,[29] he made a company of volunteers, to whom, at their own request, he gave his son, an officer of the garrison, as commander.

One of the volunteer officers writes:-

"I had the honour to be appointed lieutenant, and was

much pleased when I saw the spirit of emulation which

reigned in every heart. I cannot sufficiently praise the

spirit of exactitude with which every one was animated, and

the progress which all made in so short a time in the

management of their arms. I lay stress on the fact that it

was an occupation entirely novel to them, and one of which

the commencement always appears very hard, but they overcame

all difficulties, and found amusement in what to others

would appear merely laborious."

All this time Renault was watching the war between the English and the Moors. In January the English sailed up the Hugli, passed Chandernagore contemptuously without a salute, burned the Moorish towns of Hugli and Bandel, ravaged the banks of the river, and retired to Calcutta. Up to this the Nawab had not condescended to notice the English; now, in a moment of timidity, he asked the intervention of the French as mediators.[30] Renault eagerly complied, for had his mediation been accepted, he would have inserted in the treaty a clause enforcing peace amongst the Europeans in Bengal; but the English refused to treat through the French. This could have only one meaning. Renault felt that his course was now clear, and was on the point of offering the alliance which the Nawab had so long sought for, when he received orders from M. de Leyrit forbidding him to attack the English by land. As M. Law writes, if Renault had been free to join the Nawab with 500 Europeans, either Clive would not have ventured a night attack on the Nawab's camp, or, had he done so, the event would probably have been very different. Under the circumstances, all that Renault could do was to continue his fortifications. It was now that he first realized that Admiral Watson would take part in the attack.

"As the ships of war were what we had most to fear

from, we constructed on the river bank a battery of 6 guns,

four of which covered the approach to the Fort. From the foot

of the battery a bank twenty-two feet high stretching to

the Fort, was begun, so as to protect the curtain on this side

from the fire of the ships, but it was not finished. We had

also to attend to the inhabited portion of the town; it was

impossible to do more, but we determined to protect it from

a surprise, and so ditches were dug across the streets and

outposts established."[31]

It was this waste of valuable time upon the defence of the town that a capable engineer would have saved Renault from the mistake of committing. Had he limited his efforts to strengthening the walls of the Fort and cleared away the surrounding houses, he would have been not only stronger against the attack of the land force, but also in a much better position to resist the ships.

The issue of the Nawab's attack on Calcutta has already been told. He was so depressed by his failure that he now treated Renault with the greatest respect, and it was now that he gave him the sum of money-a lakh of rupees, then worth ￡12,500-which he spent on provisions and munitions of war. Renault says:-

"The Nawab's envoy further gave me to understand that

he was, in his heart, enraged with the English, and continued

to regard them as his enemies. In spite of this we saw

clearly from the treaty just made" (with the English)

"that we should be its victims, and knowing Siraj-ud-daula's

character, his promise to assist me strongly if the

English attacked us did not quiet my mind. I prepared for

whatever might happen by pressing on our preparations and

collecting all kinds of provisions in the Fort."

The Nawab and the English concluded a treaty of peace and alliance on the 9th of February, 1757. Renault mentions no actual treaty between the Nawab and the French, but the French doctor referred to in a note above asserts that the Nawab demanded that the Council should bind itself in writing,

"to oppose the passage of the English past Chandernagore....

It was merely engaging to defend ourselves against

the maritime force of the English ... because Chandernagore

was the only place on this coast against which they

could undertake any enterprise by water. This engagement

was signed and sent to the Nawab three days after he had

made peace with the English. The Council received in

reply two privileges, the one to coin money with the King's

stamp at Chandernagore, the other liberty of trade for

individual Frenchmen on the same footing as the Company,

and 100,000 rupees on account of the 300,000 which he had

extorted the previous year."

It does not matter whether this engagement was signed or not.[32] As a Frenchman thus mentions it, the rumour of its signature must have been very strong. It is probable that the English heard of it, and believed it to be conclusive proof of the secret understanding between the Nawab and the French. The privilege of individual trade was particularly likely to excite their commercial jealousy, for it was to this very privilege in their own case that the wealth and strength of Calcutta were due. Such a rumour, therefore, was not likely to facilitate negotiations. Nevertheless, Renault sent MM. Fournier and Nicolas, the latter of whom had many friends amongst the English, to Calcutta, to re-open the negotiations for a neutrality. These negotiations seemed to be endless. The most striking feature was Admiral Watson's apparent vacillation. When the Council proposed war he wanted peace, when they urged neutrality he wanted war. Clive went so far as to present a memorial to the Council, saying it was unfair to continue the negotiations if the Admiral was determined not to agree to a treaty. It seems as if the Council wanted war, but wished to throw the responsibility upon the Admiral. On the other hand the Admiral was only too eager to fight, but hesitated to involve the Company in a war with the French and the Nawab combined, at a moment when the British land forces were so weakened by disease that success might be considered doubtful. He had also to remember the fact that the Council at Chandernagore was subordinate to the Council at Pondicherry, and the latter might, whenever convenient to the French, repudiate the treaty. However, in spite of all difficulties, the terms were agreed to, the draft was prepared, and only the signatures were wanting, when a large reinforcement of Europeans arrived from Bombay, and the Admiral received formal notification of the declaration of war, and orders from the Admiralty to attack the French.[33] This put an immediate end to negotiations, and the envoys were instructed to return to Chandernagore. At the same time the English determined to try and prevent the Nawab from joining the French.

Whilst the Admiral was making up his mind fortune had favoured the English. The Nawab, in fear of an invasion of Bengal by the Pathans, had called upon the British for assistance, and on the 3rd of March Clive's army left Calcutta en route for Murshidabad. The Admiral now pointed out to the Nawab that the British could not safely leave Chandernagore behind them in the hands of an enemy, and Clive wrote to the same effect, saying he would wait near Chandernagore for a reply. On the 10th of March the Nawab wrote a letter to the Admiral, which concluded with the following significant words:-

"You have understanding and generosity: if your enemy

with an upright heart claims your protection, you will give

him life, but then you must be well satisfied of the innocence

of his intentions: if not, whatever you think right, that do."

Law says this letter was a forgery,[34] but as the Nawab did not write any letters himself, the only test of authenticity was his seal, which was duly attached. The English believed it to be genuine, and the words quoted could have but one meaning. Admiral Watson read them as a permission to attack the French without fear of the Nawab's interference. He prepared to support Clive as soon as the water in the Hugli would allow his ships to pass up, and, it must be supposed, informed Clive of the letter he had received. At any rate, he so informed the Council.

Clive reached Chandernagore on the 12th, and probably heard on that day or the next from Calcutta. On the 13th he sent the following summons-which Renault does not mention, and did not reply to-to Chandernagore:-

"SIR,

"The King of Great Britain having declared war

against France, I summons you in his name to surrender the

Fort of Chandernagore. In case of refusal you are to answer

the consequences, and expect to be treated according to the

usage of war in such cases.

"I have the honour to be, sir,

"Your most obedient and humble servant,

"ROBERT CLIVE."

It is important, in the light of what happened later, to notice that Clive addresses Renault as a combatant and the head of the garrison.

In England we have recently seen men eager to vilify their own nation. France has produced similar monsters. One of them wrote from Pondicherry:-

"The English having changed their minds on the arrival

of the reinforcement from Bombay, our gentlemen at Chandernagore

prepared to ransom themselves, and they would have

done so at whatever price the ransom had been fixed

provided anything had remained to them. That mode of

agreement could not possibly suit the taste of the English.

It was rejected, and the Council of Chandernagore had

no other resource except to surrender on the best conditions

they could obtain from the generosity of their enemy. This

course was so firmly resolved upon that they gave no

thought to defending themselves. The military insisted only

on firing a single discharge, which they desired the Council

would grant them. It was only the marine and the citizens

who, though they had no vote in the Council, cried out

tumultuously that the Fort must be defended. A plot was

formed to prevent the Director's son, who was ready to carry

the keys of the town to the English camp, from going out.

Suddenly some one fired a musket. The English thought

it was the reply to their summons. They commenced on

their side to fire their artillery, and that was how a defence

which lasted ten whole days was begun."

How much truth is contained in the above paragraph may be judged by what has been already stated. It will be sufficient to add that Clive, receiving no answer to his summons, made a sudden attack on a small earthwork to the south-west of the fort at 3 A.M. on the 14th of March. For two whole days then, the English had been in sight of Chandernagore without attacking. The French ladies had been sent to Chinsurah and Serampore, so that the defenders had nothing to fear on their account. Besides the French soldiers and civilians, there were also about 2000 Moorish troops present, whom Law says he persuaded the Nawab to send down as soon as the English left Calcutta. Other accounts say that Renault hired them to assist him. The Nawab had a strong force at Murshidabad ready to march under one of his commanders, Rai Durlabh Ram; but the latter had experienced what even a small English force could do in the night attack on the Nawab's camp, and was by no means inclined to match himself a second time against Clive; accordingly, he never got further than five leagues from Murshidabad. Urgent messages were sent from Chandernagore as soon as the attack began. M. Law begged of the Nawab to send reinforcements. Mr. Watts, the English Chief, and all his party in the Durbar, did their utmost to prevent any orders being issued. The Nawab gave orders which he almost immediately countermanded. Renault ascribes this to a letter which he says Clive wrote on the 14th of March, the very day of the attack, promising the Nawab to leave the French alone, but it is not at all likely that he did so. It is true Clive had written to this effect on the 22nd of February; but since then much had happened, and he was now acting, as he thought and said, with the Nawab's permission. On the 16th of March he wrote to Nand Kumar, Faujdar[35] of Hugli, as follows:-

"The many deceitful wicked measures that the French

have taken to endeavour to deprive me of the Nawab's

favour (tho' I thank God they have proved in vain, since

his Excellency's friendship towards me is daily increasing)

has long made me look on them as enemies to the English,

but I could no longer stifle my resentment when I found

that ... they dared to oppose the freedom of the English

trade on the Ganges by seizing a boat with an English

dustuck,[36] and under English colours that was passing by their

town. I am therefore come to a resolution to attack them.

I am told that some of the Government's forces have been

perswaded under promise of great rewards from the French

to join them against us; I should be sorry, at a time when

I am so happy in his Excellency's favour and friendship, that

I should do any injury to his servants; I am therefore to

desire you will send these forces an order to withdraw, and

that no other may come to their assistance."[37]

What Clive feared was that, though the Nawab might not interfere openly, some of his servants might receive secret orders to do so, and on the 22nd of March he wrote even more curtly to Rai Durlabh himself:-

"I hear you are arrived within 20 miles of Hughly.

Whether you come as a friend or an enemy, I know not. If

as the latter, say so at once, and I will send some people out

to fight you immediately.... Now you know my mind."[38]

When diplomatic correspondence was conducted in letters of this kind, it is easy to understand that the Nawab was frightened out of his wits, and absolutely unable to decide what course he should take. There was little likelihood of the siege being influenced by anything he might do.

The outpost mentioned as the object of the first attack was a small earthwork, erected at the meeting of three roads. It was covered by the Moorish troops, who held the roofs of the houses around. As the intention of the outposts was merely to prevent the town from being surprised, and to enable the inhabitants to take shelter in the Fort, the outpost ought to have been withdrawn as quickly as possible, but, probably because they thought it a point of honour to make a stout defence wherever they were first attacked, the defenders stood to it gallantly. Renault sent repeated reinforcements, first the company of grenadiers, then at 9 o'clock the company of artillery, and at 10 o'clock, when the surrounding houses were in flames, and many of the Moors had fled, a company of volunteers. With these, and a further reinforcement of sixty sailors, the little fort held out till 7 o'clock in the evening, when the English, after three fruitless assaults, ceased fire and withdrew. Street fighting is always confusing, and hence the following vague description of the day's events from Captain Eyre Coote's journal:-

"Colonel Clive ordered the picquets, with the company's

grenadiers, to march into the French bounds, which is encompassed

with an old ditch,[39] the entrance into it a gateway

with embrasures on the top but no cannons, which the

French evacuated on our people's advancing. As soon as

Captain Lynn, who commanded the party, had taken possession,

he acquainted the Colonel, who ordered Major Kilpatrick

and me, with my company of grenadiers, to join Captain

Lynn, and send him word after we had reconnoitred the

place. On our arrival there we found a party of French was

in possession of a road leading to a redoubt that they had

thrown up close under their fort, where they had a battery

of cannon, and upon our advancing down the road, they fired

some shots at us. We detached some parties through a wood,

and drove them from the road into their batteries with the

loss of some men; we then sent for the Colonel, who, as soon

as he joined us, sent to the camp for more troops. We

continued firing at each other in an irregular manner till

about noon, at which time the Colonel ordered me to continue

with my grenadier company and about 200 sepoys at the

advance post, and that he would go with the rest of our

troops to the entrance, which was about a mile back. About

2 o'clock word was brought me that the French were making

a sortie. Soon after, I perceived the sepoys retiring from

their post, upon which I sent to the Colonel to let him know

the French were coming out. I was then obliged to divide

my company, which consisted of about 50 men, into 2 or 3

parties (very much against my inclination) to take possession

of the ground the sepoys had quitted. We fired pretty

warmly for a quarter of an hour from the different parties

at each other, when the French retreated again into their

battery. On this occasion I had a gentleman (Mr. Tooke[40]),

who was a volunteer, killed, and 2 of my men wounded.

The enemy lost 5 or 6 Europeans and some blacks. I got

close under the battery, and was tolerably well sheltered by

an old house, where I continued firing till about 7 o'clock,

at which time I was relieved, and marched back to camp."

The defenders were much exhausted, as well by the fighting as by the smoke and heat from the burning houses and the heat of the weather, for it was almost the hottest season of the year. It seemed probable that the English would make another attack during the night, and as the defenders already amounted to a very large portion of the garrison, it was almost impossible to reinforce them without leaving the Fort itself in great danger, if Clive managed to approach it from any other quarter. Renault called a council of war, and, after taking the opinion of his officers in writing to the effect that the outposts must be abandoned, he withdrew the defenders at 9 o'clock, under cover of the darkness: The French had suffered a loss of only 10 men killed and wounded. Clive mentions that, at the same time, all the other outposts and batteries, except those on the river side, were withdrawn.

Mustering his forces in the Fort, Renault found them to be composed of 237 soldiers (of whom 117 were deserters from the British), 120 sailors, 70 half-castes and private Europeans, 100 persons employed by the Company, 167 Sepoys and 100 Topasses. Another French account puts the total of the French garrison at 489, but this probably excludes many of the private people.[41]

On the 15th the English established themselves in the town, and drove out the Moors who had been stationed on the roofs of the houses. This gave them to some extent the command of the interior of the Fort, but no immediate attack was made on the latter. A French account[42] says this was because-

"all their soldiers were drunk with the wine they had found

in the houses. Unfortunately we did not know of this. It

would have been the moment to make a sortie, of which the

results must have been favourable to us, the enemy being

incapable of defence."

During the night of the 15th the Fort was bombarded, and on the morning of the 16th the British completed the occupation of the houses deserted by the Moors. The latter not being received into the Fort, either fled or were sent away. They betook themselves to Nand Kumar, the Faujdar of Hugli, announcing the capture of the town. Nand Kumar, who is said to have had an understanding with the British, sent on the message to Rai Durlabh and the Nawab, with the malicious addition that the Fort, if it had not already fallen, would fall before Rai Durlabh could reach it. This put an end to all chance of the Nawab interfering.

The French spent the day in blocking a narrow passage formed by a sandbank in the river, a short distance below the town. They sank-

"four large ships and a hulk,... and had a chain and boom

across in order to prevent our going up with the squadron.

Captain Toby sent his 2nd lieutenant, Mr. Bloomer, that night,

who cut the chain and brought off a sloop that buoyed it up."[43]

It was apparently this rapid attack on the position that accounts for the timidity of the pilots and boatmen, who, Renault tells us, hurried away without staying to sink two other ships which were half laden, and which, if sunk, would have completely blocked the passage. Even on the ships which were sunk the masts had been left standing, so as to point out their position to the enemy.

Besides the ships sunk in the passage, there were at Chandernagore the French East Indiaman the Saint Contest (Captain de la Vigne Buisson), four large ships, and several small ones. The French needed all the sailors for the Fort, so they sank all the vessels they could not send up the river except three, which it was supposed they intended to use as fire-ships.

Clive, in the meantime, was advancing cautiously, his men erecting batteries, which seemed to be very easily silenced by the superior gunnery of the Fort. His object was partly to weary out the garrison by constant fighting, and partly to creep round to the river face, so as to be in a position to take the batteries which commanded the narrow river passage, as soon as Admiral Watson was ready to attack the Fort. Later on, the naval officers asserted he could not have taken the Fort without the assistance of the fleet. He said he could, and it is certain that if he had had no fleet to assist him his mode of attack would have been a very different one.

Early in the siege the French were warned from Chinsurah to beware of treachery amongst the deserters in their pay, and on the 17th of March a number of arrows were found in the Fort with labels attached, bearing the words:-

"Pardon to deserters who will rejoin their colours, and

rewards to officers who will come over to us."

These were seized by the officers before the men could see them, but one of the officers themselves, Charles Cossard de Terraneau, a sub-lieutenant of the garrison, took advantage of the offer to go over to the English. This officer had served with credit in the South of India, and had lost an arm in his country's service. The reason of his desertion is said to have been a quarrel with M. Renault. M. Raymond, the translator of a native history of the time by Gholam Husain Khan,[44] tells a story of De Terraneau which seems improbable. It is to the effect that he betrayed the secret of the river passage to Admiral Watson, and that a few years later he sent home part of the reward of his treachery to his father in France. The old man returned the money with indignant comments on his son's conduct, and De Terraneau committed suicide in despair. As a matter of fact, De Terraneau was a land officer,[45] and therefore not likely to be able to advise the Admiral, who, as we shall see, solved the riddle of the passage in a perfectly natural manner, and the Probate Records show that De Terraneau lived till 1765, and in his will left his property to his wife Ann, so the probability is that he lived and died quietly in the British service. His only trouble seems to have been to get himself received by his new brother officers. However, he was, so Clive tells us, the only artillery officer the French had, and his desertion was a very serious matter. Renault writes:-

"The same night, by the improved direction of the

besiegers' bombs, I had no doubt but that he had done us

a bad service."

On the 18th the French destroyed a battery which the English had established near the river, and drove them out of a house opposite the south-east bastion. The same day the big ships of the squadron-the Kent (Captain Speke), the Tyger (Captain Latham), and the Salisbury (Captain Martin), appeared below the town. The Bridgewater and Kingfisher had come up before. Admiral Watson was on board the Kent, and Admiral Pocock on the Tyger. The fleet anchored out of range of the Fort at the Prussian Gardens, a mile and a half below the town, and half a mile below the narrow passage in which the ships had been sunk.

On the 19th Admiral Watson formally announced the declaration of war,[46] and summoned the Fort to surrender. The Governor called a council of war, in which there was much difference of opinion. Some thought the Admiral would not have come so far without his being certain of his ability to force the passage; indeed the presence of so many deserters in the garrison rendered it probable that he had secret sources of information. As a matter of fact, it was only when Lieutenant Hey, the officer who had brought the summons, and, in doing so, had rowed between the masts of the sunken vessels, returned to the Kent, that Admiral Watson knew the passage was clear. Renault and the Council were aware that the Fort could not resist the big guns of the ships, and accordingly the more thoughtful members of the council of war determined, if possible, to try and avoid fighting by offering a ransom. This apparently gave rise to the idea that they wished to surrender, and an English officer says:-

"Upon the Admiral's sending them a summons ... to

surrender, they were very stout; they gave us to understand

there were two parties in the Factory, the Renaultions and

the anti-Renaultions. The former, which they called the

great-wigg'd gentry, or councillors, were for giving up the

Fort, but the others vowed they would die in the breach. To

these high and lofty expressions the Admiral could give no

other answer than that in a very few days, or hours perhaps,

he would give them a very good opportunity of testifying

their zeal for the Company and the Grand Monarque."

The offer of ransom was made, and was refused by the Admiral. Renault says, he-

"insisted on our surrendering and the troops taking possession

of the Fort, promising, however, that every one should keep his

own property. There was not a man amongst us who did not

prefer to run the risk of whatever might happen to surrendering

in this fashion, without the Fort having yet suffered any

material damage, and every one was willing to risk his own

interests in order to defend those of the Company. Every

one swore to do his best."

The Admiral could not attack at once, owing to the state of the river, but to secure his own position against any counter-attack, such as was very likely with a man like Captain de la Vigne in the Fort, he sent up boats the same night, and sank the vessels which it was supposed the French intended to use as fire-ships; and the next day Mr. John Delamotte, master of the Kent, under a heavy fire, sounded and buoyed the passage for the ships.

The army, meanwhile, continued its monotonous work ashore, the soldiers building batteries for the French to knock to pieces, but succeeding in Clive's object, which was "to keep the enemy constantly awake."[47] Sometimes this work was dangerous, as, for instance, on the 21st, when a ball from the Fort knocked down a verandah close to one of the English batteries, "the rubbish of which choked up one of our guns, very much bruised two artillery officers, and buried several men in the ruins."[48]

By the 22nd Clive had worked his way round to the river, and was established to the north-east and south-east of the Fort so as to assist the Admiral, and on the river the Admiral had at last got the high tide he was waiting for. Surgeon Ives tells the story as follows:[49]-

"The Admiral the same evening ordered lights to be

placed on the masts of the vessels that had been sunk, with

blinds towards the Fort, that we might see how to pass

between them a little before daylight, and without being

discovered by the enemy.

"At length the glorious morning of the 23rd of March

arrived." Clive's men gallantly stormed the battery covering

the narrow pass,[50] "and upon the ships getting under sail the

Colonel's battery, which had been finished behind a dead

wall," to take off the fire of the Fort when the ships passed

up, began firing away, and had almost battered down the

corner of the south-east bastion before the ships arrived

within shot of the Fort. "The Tyger, with Admiral Pocock's

flag flying, took the lead, and about 6 o'clock in the morning

got very well into her station against the north-east bastion.

The Kent, with Admiral Watson's flag flying, quickly followed

her, but before she could reach her proper station, the tide of

ebb unfortunately made down the river, which occasioned her

anchor to drag, so that before she brought up she had fallen

abreast of the south-east bastion, the place where the Salisbury

should have been, and from her mainmast aft she was exposed

to the flank guns of the south-west bastion also. The accident

of the Kent's anchor not holding fast, and her driving down

into the Salisbury's station, threw this last ship out of action,

to the great mortification of the captain, officers, and crew,

for she never had it in her power to fire a gun, unless it was

now and then, when she could sheer on the tide. The French,

during the whole time of the Kent and Tyger's approach

towards the Fort, kept up a terrible cannonade upon them,

without any resistance on their part; but as soon as the

ships came properly to an anchor they returned it with such

fury as astonished their adversaries. Colonel Clive's troops

at the same time got into those houses which were nearest

the Fort, and from thence greatly annoyed the enemy with

their musketry. Our ships lay so near to the Fort that the

musket balls fired from their tops, by striking against the

chunam[51] walls of the Governor's palace, which was in

the very centre of the Fort, were beaten as flat as a half-crown.

The fire now became general on both sides, and was

kept up with extraordinary spirit. The flank guns of the

south-west bastion galled the Kent very much, and the

Admiral's aide-de-camps being all wounded, Mr. Watson went

down himself to Lieutenant William Brereton, who commanded

the lower deck battery, and ordered him particularly

to direct his fire against those guns, and they were accordingly

soon afterwards silenced. At 8 in the morning

several of the enemy's shot struck the Kent at the same

time; one entered near the foremast, and set fire to two or

three 32-pound cartridges of gunpowder, as the boys held

them in their hands ready to charge the guns. By the explosion,

the wad-nets and other loose things took fire between

decks, and the whole ship was so filled with smoke that the

men, in their confusion, cried out she was on fire in the

gunner's store-room, imagining from the shock they had

felt from the balls that a shell had actually fallen into her.

This notion struck a panic into the greater part of the crew,

and 70 or 80 jumped out of the port-holes into the boats

that were alongside the ship. The French presently saw

this confusion on board the Kent, and, resolving to take the

advantage, kept up as hot a fire as possible upon her during

the whole time. Lieutenant Brereton, however, with the

assistance of some other brave men, soon extinguished the

fire, and then running to the ports, he begged the seamen to

come in again, upbraiding them for deserting their quarters;

but finding this had no effect upon them, he thought the

more certain method of succeeding would be to strike them

with a sense of shame, and therefore loudly exclaimed, 'Are

you Britons? You Englishmen, and fly from danger? For

shame! For shame!' This reproach had the desired effect;

to a man they immediately returned into the ship, repaired

to their quarters, and renewed a spirited fire on the enemy.

"In about three hours from the commencement of the

attack the parapets of the north and south bastions were

almost beaten down; the guns were mostly dismounted, and

we could plainly see from the main-top of the Kent that the

ruins from the parapet and merlons had entirely blocked up

those few guns which otherwise might have been fit for

service. We could easily discern, too, that there had been

a great slaughter among the enemy, who, finding that our

fire against them rather increased, hung out the white flag,

whereupon a cessation of hostilities took place, and the

Admiral sent Lieutenant Brereton (the only commissioned

officer on board the Kent that was not killed or wounded)

and Captain Coote of the King's regiment with a flag of truce

to the Fort, who soon returned, accompanied by the French

Governor's son, with articles of capitulation, which being

settled by the Admiral and Colonel, we soon after took possession

of the place."

So far then from the besiegers' side; Renault's description of the fight is as follows:-

"The three largest vessels, aided by the high-water of

the equinoctial tides, which, moreover, had moved the vessels

sunk in the narrow passage, passed over the sunken ships,

which did not delay them for a moment, to within half

pistol shot of the Fort, and opened fire at 6 a.m. Then the

troops in the battery on the bank of the Ganges, who had

so far fired only one discharge, suddenly found themselves

overwhelmed with the fire from the tops of the ships,

abandoned it, and had much difficulty in gaining the Fort....

I immediately sent the company of grenadiers, with a detachment

of the artillery company as reinforcements, to the

south-eastern bastion and the Bastion du Pavillon, which two

bastions face the Ganges; but those troops under the fire of

the ships, joined to that of the land batteries, rebuilt the

same night, and of more than 3000 men placed on the roofs

of houses which overlooked the Fort, almost all took flight,

leaving two of their officers behind, one dead and the other

wounded. I was obliged to send immediately all the marine

and the inhabitants from the other posts.

"The attack was maintained with vigour from 6 a.m. to

10.30, when all the batteries were covered with dead and

wounded, the guns dismounted, and the merlons destroyed,

in spite of their being strengthened with bales of cloth. No

one could show himself on the bastions, demolished by the

fire of more than 100 guns; the troops were terrified during

this attack by the loss of all the gunners and of nearly

200 men; the bastions were undermined, and threatened to

crumble away and make a breach, which the exhaustion of

our people, and the smallness of the number who remained,

made it impossible for us to hope to defend successfully.

Not a soldier would put his hand to a gun; it was only the

European marine who stood to their duty, and half of these

were already killed or disabled. A body of English troops,

lying flat on the ground behind the screen which we had commenced

to erect on the bank of the Ganges, was waiting the

signal to attack. Seeing the impossibility of holding out longer,

I thought that in the state in which the Fort was I could not

in prudence expose it to an assault. Consequently I hoisted

the white flag and ordered the drums to beat a parley."

According to an account written later by a person who was not present at the siege, Renault lost his Fort by a quarter of an hour. This writer says the tide was rapidly falling, and, had the eastern defences of the Fort been able to resist a little longer, the ships would have found their lower tiers of guns useless, and might have been easily destroyed by the French. Suppositions of this kind always suppose a stupidity on the part of the enemy which Renault had no right to count upon. Admiral Watson must have known the strength of the fortress he was about to attack before he placed his ships in a position from which it would be impossible to withdraw them whenever he wished to do so.

The flag of truce being displayed, Captain Eyre Coote was sent ashore, and returned in a quarter of an hour with the Governor's son bearing "a letter concerning the delivery of the place." Articles were agreed upon, and about 3 o'clock in the afternoon Captain Coote, with a company of artillery and two companies of grenadiers, took possession of the Fort. Before this took place there occurred an event the consequences of which were very unfortunate for the French. Everything was in a state of confusion, and the deserters, who formed the majority of the garrison, expecting no mercy from the Admiral and Clive, determined to escape. Rushing tumultuously to the Porte Royale, their arms in their hands, they forced it to be opened to them, and, finding the northern road to Chinsurah unguarded, made the best of their way in that direction. They were accompanied by a number of the military and marine, as well as by some of the Company's servants and private persons who were determined not to surrender. As all this took place after the hoisting of the white flag and pending the conclusion of the capitulation, the English considered it a breach of the laws of warfare, and when later on the meaning of the capitulation itself was contested they absolutely refused to listen to any of the representations of the French. In all about 150 persons left the Fort. They had agreed to reassemble at a place a little above Hugli. The English sent a small force after them, who shot some and captured others, but about 80 officers and men arrived at the rendezvous in safety. The pursuit, however, was carried further, and Law writes:-

"Constantly pursued, they had to make forced marches.

Some lost their way; others, wearied out, were caught as they

stopped to rest themselves. However, when I least expected

it, I was delighted to see the officers and many of the soldiers

arrive in little bands of 5 and 6, all naked, and so worn out

that they could hardly hold themselves upright. Most of

them had lost their arms."

This reinforcement increased Law's garrison from 10 or 12 men to 60, and secured the safety of his person, but the condition of the fugitives must have been an object lesson to the Nawab and his Durbar which it was not wise for the French to set before them. A naval officer writes:-

"From the letters that have lately passed between the

Nawab and us, we have great reason to hope he will not

screen the French at all at Cossimbazar or Dacca. I only

wish the Colonel does not alarm him too much, by moving

with the army to the northward, I do assure you he is so

sufficiently frightened that he had rather encounter the new

Mogul[52] himself than accept our assistance, though he strenuously

begged for it about three weeks ago. He writes word

he needs no fuller assurance of our friendship for him, when

a single letter brought us so far on the road to Murshidabad

as Chandernagore."[53]

The escape of the French from Chandernagore is of interest, as it shows the extraordinary condition of the country. It is probable that the peasantry and gentry were indifferent as to whether the English or the French were victorious, whilst the local authorities were so paralyzed by the Nawab's hesitation that they did not know which side to assist. Later on we shall find that small parties, and even solitary Frenchmen, wandered through the country with little or no interference, though the English had been recognized as the friends and allies of the new Nawab, Mir Jafar.

To return, however, to Renault and the garrison of Chandernagore. The capitulation proposed by Renault and the Admiral's answers were to the following effect:-

1. The lives of the deserters to be spared. Answer. The deserters to surrender absolutely.

2. Officers of the garrison to be prisoners on parole, and allowed to keep their effects. Answer. Agreed to.

3. Soldiers of the garrison to be prisoners of war. Answer. Agreed to, on condition that foreigners may enter the English service.

4. Sepoys of the garrison to be set free. Answer. Agreed to.

5. Officers and crew of the French Company's ship to be sent to Pondicherry. Answer. These persons to be prisoners of war according to articles 2 and 3.

6. The Jesuit fathers to be allowed to practise their religion and retain their property. Answer. No European to be allowed to remain at Chandernagore, but the fathers to be allowed to retain their property.

7. All inhabitants to retain their property. Answer. This to be left to the Admiral's sense of equity.

8. The French Factories up-country to be left in the hands of their present chiefs. Answer. This to be settled by the Nawab and the Admiral.

9. The French Company's servants to go where they please, with their clothes and linen. Answer. Agreed to.

It is evident that the capitulation was badly drawn up. Civilians who had taken part in the defence, as had all the Company's servants, might be justly included in the garrison, and accordingly Admiral Watson and Clive declared they were all prisoners of war, and that article 9 merely permitted them to reside where they pleased on parole. On the other hand, Renault and the French Council declared that, being civilians, nothing could make them part of the garrison, and therefore under article 9 they might do what they pleased. Accordingly, they expressed much surprise when they were stopped at the Fort gates by one of Clive's officers, and forced to sign, before they were allowed to pass, a paper promising not to act against Britain directly or indirectly during the course of the war.

Another point of difficulty was in reference to article 7. The town had been in the hands of the British soldiers and sepoys for days. Much had been plundered, and both soldiers and sailors were wild for loot. They considered that the Admiral was acting unjustly to them in restoring their property to civilians who had been offered the chance of retaining it if they would avoid unnecessary bloodshed by a prompt surrender. Instead of this, the defence was so desperate that one officer writes:-

"Our losses have been very great, and we have never

yet obtained a victory at so dear a rate. Perhaps you will

hear of few instances where two ships have met with heavier

damage than the Kent and Tyger in this engagement."[54]

Clive's total loss was only about 40 men killed and wounded, but the loss on the ships was so great, that before the Fort surrendered the besiegers had lost quite as many men as the besieged, and it was by no means clear to the common mind what claim the French had to leniency. Even English officers wrote:-

"The Messieurs themselves deserve but little mercy from

us for their mean behaviour in setting fire to so many bales

of cloth and raw silk in the Fort but a very few minutes

before we entered, and it grieves us much, to see such a

number of stout and good vessels sunk with their whole

cargoes far above the Fort, which is a great loss to us and

no profit to them. Those indeed below, to hinder our passage

were necessary, the others were merely through mischief.

But notwithstanding this they scarcely ask a favour from

the Admiral but it is granted."

The result was that the soldiers on guard began to beat the coolies who were helping the French to secure their goods, until they were induced by gifts to leave them alone, and much plundering went on when the soldiers could manage to escape notice. On one day three black soldiers were executed, and on another Sergeant Nover[55] and a private soldier of the 39th Regiment were condemned to death, for breaking open the Treasury and stealing 3000 rupees. Another theft, which was not traced, was the holy vessels and treasure of the Church.

Many individual Frenchmen were ruined. Of one of these Surgeon Ives narrates the following pleasing incident:-

"It happened unfortunately ... that Monsieur Nicolas,

a man of most amiable character, and the father of a large

family, had not been so provident as the rest of his countrymen

in securing his effects within the Fort, but had left them

in the town; consequently, upon Colonel Clive's first taking

possession of the place, they had all been plundered by our

common soldiers; and the poor gentleman and his family

were to all appearance ruined. The generous and humane

Captain Speke,[56] having heard of the hard fate of Monsieur

Nicolas, took care to represent it to the two admirals in all

its affecting circumstances, who immediately advanced the

sum of 1500 rupees each. Their example was followed by

the five captains of the squadron, who subscribed 5000

between them. Mr. Doidge added 800 more, and the same

sum was thrown in by another person who was a sincere well-wisher

to this unfortunate gentleman; so that a present of

9600 rupees, or ￡1200 sterling was in a few minutes collected

towards the relief of this valuable Frenchman and his

distressed family. One of the company was presently

despatched with this money, who had orders to acquaint

Monsieur Nicolas that a few of his English friends desired

his acceptance of it, as a small testimony of the very high

esteem they had for his moral character, and of their

unfeigned sympathy with him in his misfortunes. The poor

gentleman, quite transported by such an instance of generosity

in an enemy, cried out in a sort of ecstasy, 'Good God,

they axe friends indeed!' He accepted of the present with

great thankfulness, and desired that his most grateful

acknowledgements might be made to his unknown benefactors,

for whose happiness and the happiness of their

families, not only his, but the prayers of his children's

children, he hoped, would frequently be presented to heaven.

He could add no more; the tears, which ran plentifully down

his cheeks, bespoke the feelings of his heart: and, indeed,

implied much more than even Cicero with all his powers of

oratory could possibly have expressed."

This, however, was but a solitary instance; the state of the French was, as a rule, wretched in the extreme, and Renault wrote:-

"The whole colony is dispersed, and the inhabitants are

seeking an asylum, some-the greatest part-have gone to

Chinsurah, others to the Danes and to Calcutta. This

dispersion being caused by the misery to which our countrymen

are reduced, their poverty, which I cannot relieve,

draws tears from my eyes, the more bitter that I have seen

them risk their lives so generously for the interests of the

Company, and of our nation."

In such circumstances there was but one consolation possible to brave men-the knowledge that, in the eyes of friend and foe, they had done their duty. The officers of the British army and navy all spoke warmly of the gallant behaviour of the French, and the historian Broome, himself a soldier and the chronicler of many a brave deed, expresses himself as follows:-

"The conduct of the French on this occasion was most

creditable and well worthy the acknowledged gallantry of

that nation. Monsieur Renault, the Governor, displayed

great courage and determination: but the chief merit of the

defence was due to Monsieur Devignes" (Captain de la

Vigne Buisson), "commander of the French Company's ship,

Saint Contest. He took charge of the bastions, and directed

their fire with great skill and judgment, and by his own

example inspired energy and courage into all those around

him."

Renault himself found some consolation in the gallant behaviour of his sons.

"In my misfortune I have had the satisfaction to see my

two sons distinguish themselves in the siege with all the

courage and intrepidity which I could desire. The elder

brother was in the Company's service, and served as a

volunteer; the younger, an officer in the army, was, as has

been said above, commandant of the volunteers."

Others who are mentioned by Renault and his companions as having distinguished themselves on the French side, were the Councillors MM. Caillot, Nicolas, and Picques, Captain de la Vigne Buisson and his son and officers, M. Sinfray (secretary to the Council), the officers De Kalli[57] and Launay, the Company's servants Matel, Le Conte Dompierre, Boissemont and Renault de St. Germain, the private inhabitant Renault de la Fuye, and the two supercargoes of Indiamen Delabar and Chambon. Caillot (or Caillaud) was wounded. The official report of the loss of Chandernagore was drawn up on the 29th of March, 1757. The original is in the French Archives, and Caillaud's signature shows that he was still suffering from his wound. Sinfray we shall come across again. He joined Law at Cossimbazar and accompanied him on his first retreat to Patna. Sent back by Law, he joined Siraj-ud-daula, and commanded the small French contingent at Plassey. When the battle was lost he took refuge in Birbhum, was arrested by the Raja, and handed over to the English.

The immediate gain to the English by the capture of Chandernagore was immense. Clive wrote to the Select Committee at Madras:-

"I cannot at present give you an account to what value

has been taken;[58] the French Company had no great stock

of merchandize remaining, having sold off most of their

Imports and even their investment for Europe to pay in part

the large debts they had contracted. With respect to the

artillery and ammunition ... they were not indifferently

furnished: there is likewise a very fine marine arsenal well

stocked. In short nothing could have happened more

seasonable for the expeditious re-establishment of Calcutta

than the reduction of Charnagore" (i.e. Chandernagore). "It

was certainly a large, rich and thriving colony, and the loss

of it is an inexpressible blow to the French Company."[59]

The French gentlemen, after having signed under protest the document presented to them by Clive, betook themselves to Chinsurah, where they repudiated their signatures as having been extorted by force, subsequent to, and contrary to, the capitulation. They proceeded to communicate with Pondicherry, their up-country Factories, and the native Government; they also gave assistance to French soldiers who had escaped from Chandernagore. Clive and the Calcutta Council were equally determined to interpret the capitulation in their own way, and sent Renault an order, through M. Bisdom, the Dutch Director, to repair to the British camp. Renault refused, and when Clive sent a party of sepoys for him and the other councillors, they appealed to M. Bisdom for the protection of the Dutch flag. M. Bisdom informed them somewhat curtly that they had come to him without his invitation, that he had no intention of taking any part in their quarrels, that he would not give them the protection of his flag to enable them to intrigue against the English, and, in short, requested them to leave Dutch territory. As it was evident that the British were prepared to use force, Renault and the Council gave in, and were taken to Calcutta, where, for some time, they were kept close prisoners. It was not till the Nawab had been overthrown at Plassey, that they were absolutely released, and even then it was only that they might prepare for their departure from Bengal. Renault surmises, quite correctly, that this severity was probably due to the fear that they would assist the Nawab.

The following incident during Renault's captivity shows how little could be expected from the Nawab towards a friend who was no longer able to be of use to him. After the capture of Chandernagore the English Council called on the Nawab to surrender the French up-country Factories to them. Siraj-ud-daula had not even yet learned the folly of his double policy. On the 4th of April he wrote to Clive:-

"I received your letter and observe what you desire in

regard to the French factories and other goods. I address

you seeing you are a man of wisdom and knowledge, and

well acquainted with the customs and trade of the world;

and you must know that the French by the permission and

phirmaund[60] of the King[61] have built them several factories,

and carried on their trade in this kingdom. I cannot

therefore without hurting my character and exposing

myself to trouble hereafter, deliver up their factories and

goods, unless I have a written order from them for so doing,

and I am perswaded that from your friendship for me you

would never be glad at anything whereby my fame would

suffer; as I on my part am ever desirous of promoting" [yours].

"Mr. Renault, the French. Governor being in your power, if

you could get from him a paper under his own hand and

seal to this purpose; 'That of his own will and pleasure, he

thereby gave up to the English Company's servants, and

empowered them to receive all the factories, money and

goods belonging to the French Company without any hindrance

from the Nawab's people;' and would send this to

me, I should be secured by that from any trouble hereafter

on this account. But it is absolutely necessary you come

to some agreement about the King's duties arising from the

French trade.... I shall then be able to answer to his

servants 'that in order to make good the duties accruing

from the French trade I had delivered up their factories

into the hands of the English.'"[62]

Clive replied on the 8th of April:-

"Now that I have granted terms to Mr. Renault, and

that he is under my protection, it is contrary to our custom,

after this, to use violence; and without it how would he ever

of his own will and pleasure, write to desire you to deliver

up his master's property. Weigh the justice of this in your

own mind. Notwithstanding we have reduced the French

so low you, contrary to your own interest and the treaty

you have made with us, that my enemies should be yours,

you still support and encourage them. But should you

think it would hurt your character to deliver up the French

factories and goods, your Excellency need only signify to me

your approbation and I will march up and take them."[63]

The more we study the records of the time, the more clearly we realize the terrible determination of Clive's character, and we almost feel a kind of pity for the weak creatures who found themselves opposed to him, until we come across incidents like the above, which show the depths of meanness to which they were prepared to descend.

As to Renault's further career little is known, and that little we should be glad to forget. Placed in charge of the French Settlement at Karical, he surrendered, on the 5th of April, 1760, to what was undoubtedly an overwhelming British force, but after so poor a defence that he was brought before a Court Martial and cashiered. It speaks highly for the respect in which he had been held by both nations that none of the various reports and accounts of the siege mention him by name. Even Lally, who hated the French Civilians, though he says he deserved death,[64] only refers to him indirectly as being the same officer of the Company who had surrendered Chandernagore to Clive.

We shall now pass to what went on in Siraj-ud-daula's Court and capital.

* * *

Notes:

[12: Journal of M. d'Albert.]

[13: Evidently the Parish Church of St. Louis. Eyre Coote tells us the French had four guns mounted on its roof.]

[14: In early accounts of India the Muhammadans are always called Moors; the Hindus, Gentoos or Gentiles. The Topasses were Portuguese half-castes, generally employed, even by native princes, as gunners.]

[15: Captain Broome says there were fifty European ladies in the Fort. The French accounts say they all retired, previous to the siege, to Chinsurah and Serampore.]

[16: Captain, afterwards Sir, Eyre Coote.]

[17: The fullest account is one by Renault, dated October 26, 1758.]

[18: The only one, excepting the battle of Biderra, between the English and Dutch.]

[19: Governor of Pondicherry and President of the Superior Council.]

[20: Eyre Coote, in his "Journal," mentions an old ditch, which surrounded the settlement.]

[21: One hundred toises, or 600 feet; but Eyre Coote says 330 yards, the difference probably due to the measurement excluding or including the outworks.]

[22: Tanks, or artificial ponds, in Bengal are often of great size. I have seen some a quarter of a mile long.]

[23: Letter to M. de Montorcin, Chandernagore, August 1 1756. Signature lost.]

[24: The Nawab, in July, 1756, extorted three lakhs from the French and even more from the Dutch.]

[25: British Museum. Additional MS. 20,914.]

[26: A kind of fibre used in making bags and other coarse materials.]

[27: Surgeon Ives's Journal.]

[28: Letter to De Montorcin.]

[29: Both English and French use this word "inhabitant" to signify any resident who was not official, military, or in the seafaring way.]

[30: This he did through the Armenian Coja Wajid, a wealthy merchant of Hugli, who advised the Nawab on European affairs. Letter from Coja Wajid to Clive, January 17, 1757.]

[31: A French doctor, who has left an account of the Revolutions in Bengal, says there were eight outposts, and that the loss of one would have involved the loss of all the others, as they could be immediately cut off from the Fort, from which they were too distant to be easily reinforced. The doctor does not sign his name, but he was probably one of the six I mentioned above. Their names were Haillet (doctor), La Haye (surgeon-major), Du Cap (second), Du Pré (third), Droguet (fourth), and St. Didier (assistant).]

[32: M. Vernet, the Dutch Chief at Cossimbazar, wrote to the Dutch Director at Chinsurah that he could obtain a copy of this treaty from the Nawab's secretaries, if he wished for it.]

[33: See page 79 (and note).]

[34: See note, p. 89.]

[35: Governor.]

[36: A document authorising the free transit of certain goods, and their exemption from custom dues, in favour of English traders.-Wilson.]

[37: Orme MSS. India XI., p. 2744, No. 71.]

[38: Orme MSS. India XI., p. 2750, No. 83.]

[39: Still visible, I believe, in parts. The gateway certainly exists.]

[40: Mr. Tooke was a Company's servant. He had distinguished himself in the defence of Calcutta in 1756, when he was wounded, and, being taken on board the ships, escaped the dreadful ordeal of the Black Hole.]

[41: Neither of these accounts agree with the Capitulation Returns.]

[42: British Museum. Addl. MS. 20,914.]

[43: Remarks on board His Majesty's ship Tyger, March 15th.]

[44: His maternal grandfather was a cousin of Aliverdi Khan.]

[45: Malleson explains this by saying that De Terraneau was employed in the blocking up of the passage, but the story hardly needs contradiction.]

[46: This announcement seems superfluous after fighting had been going on for several days, but it simply shows the friction between the naval and military services.]

[47: Clive's journal for March 16th. Fort St. George, Sel. Com. Cons., 28th April, 1757.]

[48: Eyre Coote's journal.]

[49: The passages interpolated are on the authority of a MS. in the Orme Papers, entitled "News from Bengal."]

[50: Accounts of this detail differ. One says it was stormed on the 21st, but if so the French would have been more on their guard, and would surely have strengthened the second battery in front of the Fort.]

[51: Lime plaster made extremely hard.]

[52: The Emperor at Delhi, who was supposed to be about to invade Bengal.]

[53: Orme MSS. O.V. 32, p. 11.]

[54: Orme MSS. O.V. 32, p. 10.]

[55: Sergeant Nover was pardoned in consideration of previous good conduct. Letter from Clive to Colonel Adlercron, March 29, 1757.]

[56: Captain Speke was seriously and his son mortally wounded in the attack on Chandernagore.]

[57: I cannot identify this name in the Capitulation Returns. Possibly he was killed.]

[58: Surgeon Ives says the booty taken was valued at ￡130,000.]

[59: Orme MSS. India X., p. 2390. Letter of 30th March, 1757.]

[60: Firman, or Imperial Charter.]

[61: The Mogul, Emperor, or King of Delhi, to whom the Bengal Nawabs were nominally tributary.]

[62: Orme MSS. India XI. pp. 2766-7, No. 111.]

[63: Ibid., p. 2768, No. 112.]

[64: Memoirs of Lally. London, 1766.]

* * *

A few miles out of Murshidabad, capital of the Nawabs of Bengal since 1704, when Murshid Kuli Khan transferred his residence from Dacca to the ancient town of Muxadabad and renamed it after himself, lay a group of European Factories in the village or suburb of Cossimbazar.[65] Of these, one only, the English, was fortified; the others, i.e. the French and Dutch, were merely large houses lying in enclosures, the walls of which might keep out cattle and wild animals and even thieves, but were useless as fortifications.

In 1756 the Chief of the English Factory, as we have already seen, was the Worshipful Mr. William Watts; the Dutch factory was under M. Vernet,[66] and the French under M. Jean Law. The last mentioned was the elder son of William Law, brother of John

Law the financier, who settled in France, and placed his sons in the French service. French writers[67] on genealogy have hopelessly mixed up the two brothers, Jean and Jacques Fran?ois. Both came to India, both distinguished themselves, both rose to the rank of colonel, one by his services to the French East India Company, and one by the usual promotion of an officer in the King's army. The only proof that the elder was the Chief of Cossimbazar is to be found in a few letters, mostly copies, in which his name is given as Jean or John. As a usual rule he signed himself in the French manner by his surname only, or as Law of Lauriston.

His experiences during the four years following the accession of Siraj-ud-daula were painful and exciting, and he has recorded them in a journal or memoir[68] which has never yet been published, but which is of great interest to the student of Indian history. For us it has the added charm of containing a picture of ourselves painted by one who, though a foreigner by education, was enabled by his birth to understand our national peculiarities. In the present chapter I shall limit myself almost entirely to quotations from this memoir.

Law was by no means an admirer of Aliverdi Khan's successor,-

"Siraj-ud-daula, a young man of twenty-four or twenty-five,[69]

very common in appearance. Before the death of Aliverdi

Khan the character of Siraj-ud-daula was reported to be one

of the worst ever known. In fact, he had distinguished himself

not only by all sorts of debauchery, but by a revolting

cruelty. The Hindu women are accustomed to bathe on the

banks of the Ganges. Siraj-ud-daula, who was informed by

his spies which of them were beautiful, sent his satellites in

disguise in little boats to carry them off. He was often

seen, in the season when the river overflows, causing the

ferry boats to be upset or sunk in order to have the cruel

pleasure of watching the terrified confusion of a hundred

people at a time, men, women, and children, of whom many,

not being able to swim, were sure to perish. When it

became necessary to get rid of some great lord or minister,

Siraj-ud-daula alone appeared in the business, Aliverdi Khan

retiring to one of his houses or gardens outside the town, so

that he might not hear the cries of the persons whom he was

causing to be killed."

So bad was the reputation of this young prince, that many persons, among them Mr. Watts, imagined it impossible that the people would ever tolerate his accession. The European nations in Bengal had no regular representatives at the Court of the Nawab; and the Chiefs of the Factories at Cossimbazar, though now and then admitted to the Durbar, transacted their business mainly through wakils, or native agents, who, of course, had the advantage of knowing the language and, what was of much greater importance, understood all those indirect ways in which in Eastern countries one's own business is forwarded and that of one's rivals thwarted. Then, as now, the difficulty of dealing with native agents was to induce these agents to express their own opinions frankly and clearly.[70] So far from the English Chief being corrected by his wakil, we find the latter, whilst applying to other nobles for patronage and assistance, studiously refraining from making any application to Siraj-ud-daula when English business had to be transacted at Court.

The English went even further:-

"On certain occasions they refused him admission into

their factory at Cossimbazar and their country houses,

because, in fact, this excessively blustering and impertinent

young man used to break the furniture, or, if it pleased his

fancy, take it away. But Siraj-ud-daula was not the man

to forget what he regarded as an insult. The day after the

capture of the English fort at Cossimbazar, he was heard to

say in full Durbar, 'Behold the English, formerly so proud

that they did not wish to receive me in their houses!' In

short, people knew, long before the death of Aliverdi Khan,

that Siraj-ud-daula was hostile to the English."

With the French it was different:-

"On the other hand, he was very well disposed towards

us. It being our interest to humour him, we had received

him with a hundred times more politeness than he deserved.

By the advice of Rai Durlabh Ram and Mohan Lal, we had

recourse to him in important affairs. Consequently, we

gave him presents from time to time, and this confirmed his

friendship for us. The previous year (1755) had been a

very good one for him, owing to the business connected with

the settlement of the Danes in Bengal. In fact, it was by

his influence that I was enabled to conclude this affair, and

Aliverdi Khan allowed him to retain all the profit from it,

so I can say that I had no bad place in the heart of Siraj-ud-daula.

It is true he was a profligate, but a profligate who

was to be feared, who could be useful to us, and who might

some day be a good man. Nawajis Muhammad Khan[71] had

been at least as vicious as Siraj-ud-daula, and yet he had

become the idol of the people."

Law, therefore, had cultivated the young Nawab. Mr. Watts, on the other hand, was not only foolish enough to neglect him, but carried his folly to extremes. He was not in a position to prevent his accession, and ought therefore to have been careful by the correctness of his behaviour to show no signs of being opposed to it. So far from this, he is strongly suspected of having entered into correspondence with the widow of Nawajis Khan, who had adopted Siraj-ud-daula's younger brother[72] and was supporting his candidature for the throne, and also with Saukat Jang, Nawab of Purneah and cousin of Siraj-ud-daula, who was trying to obtain the throne for himself. Still further, he advised Mr. Drake, Governor of Calcutta, to give shelter to Kissendas, son of Raj Balav (Nawajis Khan's Diwan), who had fled with the treasures in his charge when his father was called to account for his master's property.

Contrary to Mr. Watts's expectations, Aliverdi Khan's last acts so smoothed the way for Siraj-ud-daula, and the latter acted with such decision and promptitude on his grandfather's death, that in an incredibly short time he had all his enemies at his feet, and was at leisure to attend to state business, and especially the affairs of the foreign Settlements. Aliverdi Khan had always been extremely jealous of allowing the European nations to erect any fortifications, but, during his last illness, all of them, expecting a contested succession, during which, owing to complications in Europe, they might find themselves at war with each other in India, began to repair their old walls or to erect new ones. This was exactly what Siraj-ud-daula wanted. His first care on his accession had been to make himself master of his grandfather's and uncle's treasures. To these he had added those of such of his grandfather's servants as he could readily lay hands on. Other wealthy nobles and officers had fled to the English, or were suspected of having secretly sent their treasures to Calcutta. It was also supposed that the European Settlements, and especially Calcutta, were filled with the riches accumulated by the foreigners. Whilst, therefore, the Nawab was determined to make all the European nations contribute largely in honour of his accession, and in atonement for their insolence in fortifying themselves without his permission, he had special reasons for beginning with the English. In the mean time, however, he had first to settle with his cousin, Saukat Jang, the Nawab of Purneah, so he contented himself with sending orders to the Chiefs of the Factories to pull down their new fortifications. Law acted wisely and promptly.

"I immediately drew up an Arzi, or Petition, and had one

brought from the Council in Chandernagore of the same

tenour as my own. These two papers were sent to Siraj-ud-daula,

who appeared satisfied with them. He even wrote

me in reply that he did not forbid our repairing old works,

but merely our making new ones. Besides, the spies who

had been sent to Chandernagore, being well received and

satisfied with the presents made them, submitted a report

favourable to us, so that our business was hushed up."

The English behaved very differently, and their answer, which was bold if not insolent in tone,[73] reached the Nawab at the very moment when he had received the submission of the Nawab of Purneah. Law adds:-

"I was assured that the Nawab of Purneah showed him

some letters which he had received from the English. This

is difficult to believe, but this is how the match took fire.

"Accordingly, no sooner had the Nawab heard the contents

of the answer from the English, than he jumped up in

anger, and, pulling out his sword, swore he would go and

exterminate all the Feringhees.[74] At the same time he gave

orders for the march of his army, and appointed several

Jemadars[75] to command the advance guard. As in his first

burst of rage he had used the general word Feringhees,

which is applied to all Europeans, some friends whom I had

in the army, and who did not know how our business had

ended, sent to warn me to be on my guard, as our Factory

would be besieged. The alarm was great with us, and with

the English, at Cossimbazar. I spent more than twenty-four

hours in much anxiety; carrying wood, provisions, etc., into

the Factory, but I soon knew what to expect. I saw horsemen

arrive and surround the English fort, and at the same

time I received an official letter from the Nawab, telling me

not to be anxious, and that he was as well pleased with us

as he was ill pleased with the English."

Cossimbazar surrendered without firing a shot, owing to the treacherous advice of the Nawab's generals, and Siraj-ud-daula advanced on Calcutta. It was with the greatest difficulty that Law escaped being forced to march in his train.

"The remains of the respect which he had formerly felt

for Europeans made him afraid of failure in his attack

on Calcutta, which had been represented to him as a very

strong place, defended by three or four thousand men. He

wrote to me in the strongest terms to engage the Director of

Chandernagore to give him what assistance he could in men

and ammunition. 'Calcutta is yours,' he said to our agent

in full Durbar; 'I give you that place and its dependencies

as the price of the services you will render me. I know,

besides, that the English are your enemies; you are always

at war with them either in Europe or on the Coromandel

Coast, so I can interpret your refusal only as a sign of the

little interest you take in what concerns me. I am resolved

to do you as much good as Salabat Jang[76] has done you in

the Deccan, but if you refuse my friendship and the offers I

make you, you will soon see me fall on you and cause you

to experience the same treatment that I am now preparing

for others in your favour.' He wished us to send down at

once to Calcutta all the ships and other vessels which were

at Chandernagore. After having thanked him for his

favourable disposition towards us, I represented to him

that we were not at war with the English, that what had

happened on the Coromandel Coast was a particular affair

which we had settled amicably, and that the English, in

Bengal having given us no cause of offence, it was impossible

for us, without orders either from Europe or Pondicherry, to

give him the assistance he asked for. Such reasons could

only excite irritation in the mind of a man of Siraj-ud-daula's

character. He swore he would have what he wanted

whether we wished it or not, and that, as we lived in his

country, his will ought to be law to us. I did my best to

appease him, but uselessly. At the moment of his departure

his sent us word by one of his uncles that he still counted

on our assistance, and he sent me a letter for the Governor of

Pondicherry, in which he begged him to give us the necessary

orders. I thought to myself this was so much time gained."

The Nawab captured Calcutta without any open assistance from the French, and, though he set free most of the prisoners who survived the Black Hole, he sent Holwell and three others before him to Murshidabad. Law, who had already sheltered Mrs. Watts and her family, and such of the English of Cossimbazar as had been able to escape to him, now showed similar kindness to Holwell and his companions. Of this he says modestly:-

"The gratitude Mr. Holwell expresses for a few little

services which I was able to render him makes me regret

my inability to do as much to deserve his gratitude as I

should have liked to do."[77]

He also, apparently with some difficulty, obtained consent to M. Courtin's request for the release of the English prisoners at Dacca; for-

"Siraj-ud-daula, being informed that there were two or

three very charming English ladies at Dacca, was strongly

tempted to adorn his harem with them."

Law's success in these matters is a striking instance of his personal influence, for Siraj-ud-daula was by no means any longer well disposed towards the French and Dutch.

"The fear of drawing on his back all the European

nations at once had made him politic. At first he pretended

to be satisfied with the reply sent by the Governor

of Chandernagore, and assured him that he would always

treat us with the greatest kindness. He said the same to

the Dutch, but when Calcutta was taken the mask fell. He

had nothing more to fear. Scarcely had he arrived at Hugli

when he sent detachments to Chandernagore and Chinsurah

to summon the commandants to pay contributions, or to

resolve to see their flags taken away and their forts

demolished. In short, we were forced to yield what the

Nawab demanded; whilst he, as he said, was content with

having punished a nation which had offended him, and with

having put the others to ransom to pay for the expenses of

the expedition. We saw the tyrant reappear in triumph at

Murshidabad, little thinking of the punishment which Providence

was preparing for his crimes, and to make which still

more striking, he was yet to have some further successes."

It may be here pointed out that, not only did the Nawab not insist on the destruction of the French and Dutch fortifications, but he did not destroy the fortifications of Calcutta. This proves that if the English had shown the humility and readiness to contribute which he desired, he would have left them in peace at the first, or, after the capture of Calcutta, have permitted them to resettle there without farther disturbance. In short, the real necessity of making the European nations respect his authority, instead of guiding him in a settled course, merely provided a pretext for satisfying his greed. This is the opinion, not only of the French and English who were at Murshidabad when the troubles began, but of the English officials who went there later on and made careful inquiries amongst all classes of people in order to ascertain the real reason of Siraj-ud-daula's attack upon the English.

His avarice was to prove the Nawab's ruin.

"Siraj-ud-daula was one of the richest Nawabs that had

ever reigned. Without mentioning his revenues, of which

he gave no account at the Court of Delhi, he possessed

immense wealth, both in gold and silver coin, and in jewels

and precious stones, which had been left by the preceding

three Nawabs. In spite of this he thought only of increasing

his wealth. If any extraordinary expense had to be met

he ordered contributions, and levied them with extreme

rigour. Having never known himself what it was to want

money, he supposed that, in due proportion, money was as

common with other people as with himself, and that the

Europeans especially were inexhaustible. His violence

towards them was partly due to this. In fact, from his

behaviour, one would have said his object was to ruin everybody.

He spared no one, not even his relatives, from whom

he took all the pensions and all the offices which they

had held in the time of Aliverdi Khan. Was it possible for

such a man to keep his throne? Those who did not know

him intimately, when they saw him victorious over his

enemies and confirmed as Nawab by a firman[78]from the

Great Mogul, were forced to suppose that there was in his

character some great virtue which balanced his vices and

counteracted their effects. However, this young giddy-pate

had no talent for government except that of making himself

feared, and, at the same time, passed for the most cowardly

of men. At first he had shown some regard for the officers of

the army, because, until he was recognized as Nawab, he felt

his need of them. He had even shown generosity, but this

quality, which was quite opposed to his real character,

soon disappeared,to make place for violence and greed, which decided

against him all those who had favoured his accession in the

hope that he would behave discreetly when he became Nawab."

Owing to the general disgust felt at Murshidabad for the Nawab, his cousin, Saukat Jang, Nawab of Purneah, thought the opportunity favourable for reviving his claims, and, early in October, Siraj-ud-daula, hearing of his contemplated rebellion, invaded his country.

"Every one longed for a change, and many flattered

themselves it would take place. In fact, it was the most

favourable opportunity to procure it. The result would have

been happiness and tranquillity for Bengal. Whilst contributing

to the general good-which even the Dutch might

have interested themselves in-we could have prevented

the misfortunes which have since happened to us. Three or

four hundred Europeans and a few sepoys would have done

the business. If we could have joined this force to the

enemies of Siraj-ud-daula we should have placed on the

throne another Nawab-not, indeed, one wholly to our taste,

but, not to worry about trifles, one to the liking of the house

of Jagat Seth,[79] and the chief Moors and Rajas. I am sure

such a Nawab would have kept his throne. The English

would have been re-established peaceably, they would certainly

have received some compensation, and would have had

to be satisfied whether they liked it or not. The neutrality of

the Ganges assured, at least to the same extent as in the time

of Aliverdi Khan, the English would have been prevented

from invading Bengal, and from sending thither the reinforcements

which had contributed so much to their success

on the Madras Coast. All this depended on us, but how

could we foresee the succession of events which has been as

contrary to us as it has been favourable to the English? As

it was, we remained quiet, and the rash valour of the young

Nawab of Purneah, whilst it delivered Siraj-ud-daula from

the only enemy he had to fear in the country, made it clear

to the whole of Bengal that the change so much desired

could be effected only by the English."

Mir Jafar and other leaders of the Nawab's army were about to declare in favour of Saukat Jang when Ramnarain,[80] Naib of Patna, arrived to support Siraj-ud-daula. Whilst the malcontents were hesitating what to do, Saukat Jang made a rash attack on the Nawab's army, and was shot dead in the fight.

"Behold him then, freed by this event from all his

inquietudes; detested, it is true, but feared even by those

who only knew him by name. In a country where predestination

has so much power over the mind, the star of

Siraj-ud-daula was, people said, predominant. Nothing could

resist him. He was himself persuaded of this. Sure of the

good fortune which protected him, he abandoned himself

more than ever to those passions which urged him to the

commission of every imaginable form of violence.

"It can be guessed what we had to suffer, we and the

Dutch, at Cossimbazar. Demand followed demand, and insult

followed insult, on the part of the native officers and soldiers;

for they, forming their behaviour on that of their master,

thought they could not sufficiently show their contempt for

everything European. We could not go outside of our Factories

without being exposed to annoyance of one kind or another."

Every one in the land turned wistful eyes towards the English, but they lay inactive at Fulta, and it seemed as if help from Madras would never come. The English, therefore, tried to bring about a revolution favourable to themselves at Murshidabad, and began to look for persons who might be induced to undertake it; but this was not easy, as the Moor nobles had little acquaintance with the Europeans. Of the Hindus in Bengal-

"the best informed were the bankers and merchants, who

by their commercial correspondence had been in a position

to learn many things. The house of Jagat Seth, for instance,

was likely to help the English all the more because to its

knowledge of them it joined several causes of complaint

against Siraj-ud-daula. Up to the death of Aliverdi Khan

it had always enjoyed the greatest respect. It was this

family which had conducted almost all his financial business,

and it may be said that it had long been the chief cause of

all the revolutions in Bengal. But now things were much

changed. Siraj-ud-daula, the most inconsiderate of men,

never supposing that he would need the assistance of mere

bankers, or that he could ever have any reason to fear them,

never showed them the slightest politeness. He wanted

their wealth, and some day or other it was certain he would

seize it. These bankers, then, were the persons to serve the

English. They could by themselves have formed a party,

and, even without the assistance of any Europeans, have

put another Nawab upon the throne and re-established the

English, but this would have required much time. Business

moves very slowly amongst Indians, and this would not have

suited the English. The bankers also were Hindus, and of

a race which does not like to risk danger. To stimulate

them to action it was necessary for the English to commence

operations and achieve some initial successes, and as yet

there seemed no likelihood of their doing so. To negotiate

with Siraj-ud-daula for a peaceful re-establishment was quite

as difficult, unless they were inclined to accept the very

hardest conditions, for the Nawab had now the most extravagant

contempt for all Europeans; a pair of slippers, he

said, is all that is needed to govern them."

Just as it seemed likely that the English would have to stoop to the Nawab's terms, they received news of the despatch of reinforcements from Madras. About the same time, it became known to both French and English that France and England had declared war against each other in the preceding May.[81] The English naturally said nothing about it, and the French were too eager to see the Nawab well beaten to put any unnecessary obstacles in their way. The negotiations with the friends of the Europeans at Murshidabad were quietly continued until Admiral Watson and Colonel Clive arrived. A rapid advance was then made on Calcutta, which was captured with hardly any resistance.

Siraj-ud-daula was so little disturbed by the recapture of Calcutta that the French thought everything would terminate amicably, but, possibly owing to the reputation of Watson and Clive, who had so long fought against the French,[82] they thought it likely that, if the English demanded compensation for their losses, the Nawab would allow them to recoup themselves by seizing the French Settlements. M. Renault, therefore, wrote to Law to make sure that, in any treaty between the Nawab and the English, an article should be inserted providing for the neutrality of the Ganges; but the French, at present, were needlessly alarmed. The English had no intention of creeping quietly back into the country. Watson and Clive addressed haughty letters to the Nawab, demanding reparation for the wrongs inflicted on the English; and the Admiral and the Council declared war in the name of the King and the Company. This possibly amused the Nawab, who took no notice of their letters; but it was a different matter when a small English force sailed up the Hugli, passed Chandernagore unopposed by the French, captured the fort of Hugli, burnt Hugli[83] and Bandel towns, and ravaged both banks of the river down to Calcutta. The French were in an awkward position. The English had passed Chandernagore without a salute, which was an unfriendly, if not a hostile act; whilst the Nawab thought that, as the French had not fired on them, they must be in alliance with them. Law had to bear the brunt of this suspicion. His common sense told him that the English would never consent to a neutrality, and he wrote to Renault that it was absolutely necessary to join the Moors.

"The neutrality was by no means obligatory, as no treaty

existed. In fact, what confidence could we have in a forced

neutrality, which had been observed so long only out of

fear of the Nawab, who for the general good of the country

was unwilling to allow any act of hostility to be committed

by the Europeans? Much more so when the English were

at war with the Nawab himself. If they managed to get

the better of him, what would become of this fear, the sole

foundation of the neutrality?"

So Law wrote to Renault, begging him, if he could not persuade the English to sign a treaty of neutrality at once, to make up his mind and join the Nawab. We have seen why Renault could do neither, and Law, writing after the event says, generously enough:-

"I am bound to respect the reasons which determined

M. Renault as well as the gentlemen of the Council, who

were all much too good citizens not to have kept constantly

in their minds the welfare of our nation and the Company.

People always do see things differently, and the event does

not always prove the correctness or incorrectness of the

reasons which have decided us to take one or the other course."

As soon as the Nawab heard of the plundering of Hugli he set out for Calcutta, but to blind the English he requested M. Renault to mediate between them. The English refusal to treat through the French had the effect of clearing up matters between the latter and the Nawab; but he could not understand why the French would not actively assist him. Certain, at any rate, that he had only the English to deal with, he foolishly played into their hands by marching to fight them on their own ground, whereas, if he had remained idle at a little distance, merely forbidding supplies to be sent them, he could have starved them out of Calcutta in a few months. As I have said before, Clive attacked his camp on the 5th of February, and so terrified him that he consented to a shameful peace, in which he forgot all mention of the neutrality of the Ganges. Law tells a curious story to the effect that what frightened the Nawab most of all was a letter from Admiral Watson, threatening to make him a prisoner and carry him to England. Watson's letter is extant, and contains no such threat, but it is quite possible that it was so interpreted to the Nawab.

Though the Nawab had assured the English that he would have the same friends and enemies as they, and had omitted to mention the French in the treaty, he now, of his own accord, gave the French all that the English had extorted from him. This act could not be kept secret.

"A great fault at present, and which has always existed,

in the management of affairs in India, especially in Bengal,

is that nothing is secret. Scarcely had the Nawab formed

any project when it was known to the lowest of his slaves.

The English, who were suspicious, and who had for friends

every one who was an enemy of Siraj-ud-daula, whom all

detested, were soon informed of his proposals to M. Renault

and of the letters written on both sides."

Yet Law thinks it was only the European war and the fear that Renault intended an alliance with the Nawab that induced the English to proceed to extremities:-

"The dethronement of the Nawab had become an absolute

necessity. To drive us out of Bengal was only a preliminary

piece of work. A squadron of ours with considerable forces

might arrive. Siraj-ud-daula might join his forces to it.

What, then, would become of the English? They needed

for Nawab a man attached to their interests. Besides, this

revolution was not so difficult to carry out as one might

imagine. With Chandernagore destroyed, nothing could be

more easy; but even if we were left alone the revolution

could have been effected by the junction of the English with

the forces which would have been produced against Siraj-ud-daula

by the crowd of enemies whom he had, and amongst

whom were to be counted the most respectable persons in

the three provinces.[84] This statement demands an explanation.

I have already spoken of the house of Jagat Seth, or

rather of its chiefs, who are named Seth Mahtab Rai and Seth

Sarup Chand, bankers of the Mogul, the richest and most

powerful merchants who have ever lived. They are, I can

say, the movers of the revolution. Without them the English

would never have carried out what they have. I have

already said they were not pleased with Siraj-ud-daula, who

did not show them the same respect as the old Nawab

Aliverdi Khan had done; but the arrival of the English

forces, the capture of the Moorish forts, and the fright of

the Nawab before Calcutta, had made a change which was

apparently in their favour. The Nawab began to perceive

that the bankers were necessary to him. The English

would have no one except them as mediators, and so they

had become, as it were, responsible for the behaviour of

both the Nawab and the English. Accordingly after the

Peace there was nothing but kindness and politeness from

the Nawab towards them, and he consulted them in everything.

At the bottom this behaviour of his was sheer

trickery. The Seths were persuaded that the Nawab who

hated the English must also dislike the persons whom the

English employed. Profiting by the hatred which the

Nawab had drawn on himself by his violence, and distributing

money judiciously, they had long since gained over

those who were nearest to the Nawab, whose imprudence

always enabled them to know what he had in his heart.

From what came to the knowledge of the Seths it was easy

to guess what he intended, and this made them tremble, for

it was nothing less than their destruction, which could be

averted only by his own. The cause of the English had

become that of the Seths; their interests were identical. Can

one be surprised to see them acting in concert? Further,

when one remembers that it was this same house of bankers

that overthrew Sarfaraz Khan[85] to enthrone Aliverdi Khan,

and who, during the reign of the latter, had the management

of all important business, one must confess that it ought not

to be difficult for persons of so much influence to execute a

project in which, the English were taking a share."[86]

Law could not persuade Renault to act, and without his doing so the game was nearly hopeless. Still, he worked at forming a French party in the Court. By means of Coja Wajid, an Armenian merchant of Hugli, whose property had been plundered by the English, he obtained an interview with the Nawab, and persuaded him to send the 2000 soldiers who were with Renault at the beginning of the siege. More would have been despatched but for the apparent certainty that the treaty of neutrality would be signed. In fact, Renault was so worried that, on the complaint of Watson and Clive that Law was exciting the Nawab against the English, he wrote Law a letter which caused the latter to ask to be recalled from Cossimbazar, and it was only at Renault's earnest request that he consented to remain at his post. Law continued forming his party.

"It would appear from the English memoirs that we

corrupted the whole Durbar at Murshidabad to our side by

presents and lies. I might with justice retort this reproach.

As a matter of fact, except Siraj-ud-daula himself, one may

say the English had the whole Durbar always in their

favour. Without insisting on this point, let us honestly

agree, since the English themselves confess it, that we were,

like them, much engaged in opposing corruption to corruption

in order to gain the friendship of scoundrels so as to

place ourselves on equal terms with our enemies. This has

always happened, and ought not to cause surprise in a Court

where right counts for nothing and, every other motive apart,

one can never be successful except by the weight of what

one puts in the balance of iniquity. For the rest, right

or wrong, it is certain that the English were always in a

position to put in more than we could.

"Fear and greed are the two chief motives of Indian

minds. Everything depends on one or the other. Often

they are combined towards the same object, but, when they

are opposed, fear always conquers. A proof of this is easily

to be seen in all the events connected with, the revolution

in Bengal. When, in 1756, Siraj-ud-daula determined to

expel the English, fear and greed combined to make him

act. As soon as he had himself proved the superiority of

the English troops, fear took the upper hand in his mind,

grew stronger day by day, and soon put him in a condition

in which he was unable to follow, and often even to see, his

true interests.

"I mention the Nawab first. His hatred for the English

certainly indicated friendship for us. I think so myself, but

we have seen what was his character and his state of mind

in general. I ask, in all good faith, whether we could expect

any advantage from his friendship? This person, cowed by

fear, irresolute and imprudent, could he alone be of any use

to us? It was necessary for him to be supported by some

one who had his confidence and was capable by his own

firmness of fixing the irresolution of the Prince.

"Mohan Lal, chief Diwan of Siraj-ud-daula, was this

man, the greatest scoundrel the earth has ever borne, worthy

minister of such a master, and yet, in truth, the only person

who was really attached to him. He had firmness and also

sufficient judgment to understand that the ruin of Siraj-ud-daula

must necessarily bring on his own. He was as much,

detested as his master. The sworn enemy of the Seths, and

capable of holding his own against them, I think those

bankers would not have succeeded so easily in their project

if he had been free to act, but, unfortunately for us, he had

been for some time, and was at this most critical moment

dangerously ill. He could not leave his house. I went to

see him twice with Siraj-ud-daula, but it was not possible to

get a word from him. There is strong reason to believe he

had been poisoned. Owing to this, Siraj-ud-daula saw himself

deprived of his only support.

"Coja Wajid, who had introduced me to the Nawab, and

who, it would be natural to suppose, was our patron, was a

great merchant of Hugli. He was consulted by the Nawab

only because, as he had frequented the Europeans and especially

the English, the Nawab imagined he knew them perfectly.

He was one of the most timid of men, who wanted

to be polite to everybody, and who, had he seen the dagger

raised, would have thought he might offend Siraj-ud-daula

by warning him that some one intended to assassinate him.[87]

Possibly he did not love the Seths, but he feared them,

which was sufficient to make him useless to us.

"Rai Durlabh Ram, the other Diwan of the Nawab, was

the man to whom I was bound to trust most. Before the

arrival of Clive he might have been thought the enemy of

the English. It was he who pretended to have beaten them

and to have taken Calcutta. He wished, he said, to maintain

his reputation; but after the affair of the 5th of February,

in which the only part he took was to share in the flight, he

was not the same man; he feared nothing so much as to

have to fight the English. This fear disposed him to gradually

come to terms with the Seths, of whose greatness he

was very jealous. He also hated the Nawab, by whom he

had been ill-used on many occasions. In short, I could never

get him to say a single word in our favour in the Durbar.

The fear of compromising himself made him decide to remain

neutral for the present, though firmly resolved to join finally

the side which appeared to him to be the strongest."

This, then, was the French party, whose sole bond was dislike to the Seths, and the members of which, by timidity or ill-health, were unable to act. It was different with their enemies.

"The English had on their side in the Durbar the terror

of their arms, the faults of Siraj-ud-daula, the ruling influence

and the refined policy of the Seths, who, to conceal their game

more completely, and knowing that it pleased the Nawab,

often spoke all the ill they could think of about the English,

so as to excite him against them and at the same time gain

his confidence. The Nawab fell readily into the snare, and

said everything that came into his mind, thus enabling his

enemies to guard against all the evil which otherwise he

might have managed to do them. The English had also on

their side all the chief officers in the Nawab's army-Jafar

All Khan, Khodadad Khan Latty, and a number of others

who were attached to them by their presents or the influence

of the Seths, all the ministers of the old Court whom

Siraj-ud-daula had disgraced, nearly all the secretaries,[88] the

writers[89] of the Durbar, and even the eunuchs of the harem.

What might they not expect to achieve by the union of all

these forces when guided by so skilful a man as Mr. Watts?"

With such enemies to combat in the Court itself, Law heard that the English were marching on Chandernagore. By the most painful efforts he obtained orders for reinforcements to be sent to the French. They-

"were ready to start, the soldiers had been paid, the Commandant[90]

waited only for final orders. I went to see him

and promised him a large sum if he succeeded in raising the

siege of Chandernagore. I also visited several of the chief

officers, to whom I promised rewards proportionate to their

rank. I represented to the Nawab that Chandernagore must

be certainly captured if the reinforcements did not set out

at once, and I tried to persuade him to give his orders to

the Commandant in my presence. 'All is ready,' replied the

Nawab, 'but before resorting to arms it is proper to try all

possible means to avoid a rupture, and all the more so as the

English have just promised to obey the orders I shall send

them.'[91] I recognized the hand of the Seths in these details.

They encouraged the Nawab in a false impression about this

affair. On the one hand, they assured him that the march

of the English, was only to frighten us into subscribing to

a treaty of neutrality, and on the other hand they increased

his natural timidity by exaggerating the force of the English

and by representing the risk he ran in assisting us with

reinforcements which would probably not prevent the capture

of Chandernagore if the English were determined to take it,

but would serve as a reason for the English to attack the

Nawab himself. They managed so well that they destroyed

in the evening all the effect I had produced in the morning.

"I resolved to visit the bankers. They immediately

commenced talking about our debts, and called my attention

to the want of punctuality in our payments. I said that

this was not the question just now, and that I came to them

upon a much more interesting matter, which, however, concerned

them as well as us with respect to those very debts

for which they were asking payment and security. I asked

why they supported the English against us. They denied it,

and, after much explanation, they promised to make any

suggestions I wished to the Nawab. They added that they

were quite sure the English would not attack us, and that

I might remain tranquil. Knowing that they were well

acquainted with the designs of the English, I told them I

knew as well as they did what these were, and that I saw

no way of preventing them from attacking Chandernagore

except by hastening the despatch of the reinforcements which

the Nawab had promised, and that as they were disposed to

serve me, I begged them to make the Nawab understand the

same. They replied that the Nawab wished to avoid any

rupture with the English, and they said many other things

which only showed me that, in spite of their good will, they

would do nothing for us. Ranjit Rai, who was their man

of business as well as the agent of the English, said to me

in a mocking tone, 'You are a Frenchman; are you afraid of

the English? If they attack you, defend yourselves! No

one is ignorant of what your nation has done on the Madras

Coast, and we are curious to see how you will come off in

this business here.' I told him I did not expect to find such

a warlike person in a Bengali merchant, and that sometimes

people repented of their curiosity. That was enough for such

a fellow, but I saw clearly that the laugh would not be on

my side. However, every one was very polite, and I left

the house."

Law thinks the Seths honestly believed that the English march on Chandernagore was merely intended to frighten the French, and, as a proof of their friendliness, narrates a further incident of this visit:-

"The conversation having turned on Siraj-ud-daula, on

the reasons he had given the Seths to fear him, and on his

violent character, I said I understood clearly enough what

they meant, and that they certainly wanted to set up another

Nawab. The Seths, instead of denying this, contented themselves

with saying in a low voice that this was a subject

which should not be talked about. Omichand, the English

agent[92] (who, by the way, cried 'Away with them!' wherever

he went), was present. If the fact had been false, the Seths

would certainly have denied it, and would have reproached

me for talking in such a way. If they had even thought

I intended to thwart them, they would also have denied

it, but considering all that had happened, the vexations

caused us by the Nawab and our obstinate refusals to help

him, they imagined that we should be just as content as they

were to see him deposed, provided only the English would

leave us in peace. In fact, they did not as yet regard us as

enemies."

Law was, however, ignorant that Clive had already promised, or did so soon after, to give the property of the French Company to the Seths in payment of the money the French owed them; but he now for the first time fully realized the gravity of the situation. The indiscretion of the Seths showed him the whole extent of the plot, and the same evening he told the Nawab, but-

"the poor young man began to laugh, not being able to

imagine I could be so foolish as to indulge in such ideas."

And yet, whilst he refused to believe in the treason of his officers, the Nawab indulged at times in the most violent outbreaks of temper against them.

"Siraj-ud-daula was not master of himself.[93] It would

have needed as much firmness in his character as there was

deceitfulness to make the latter quality of use to him. At

certain times his natural disposition overmastered him,

especially when in his harem surrounded by his wives and

servants, when he was accustomed to say openly all that

was in his heart. Sometimes this happened to him in full

Durbar."

The same evening, also, Mr. Watts came to the Durbar, and the matter of the neutrality was talked over. The Nawab wished the two gentlemen to pledge their respective nations to keep the peace, but Mr. Watts skilfully avoided giving any promise, and suggested the Nawab should write to the Admiral. Law, seeing that further delay was aimed at, exclaimed that the Admiral would pay as little respect to this letter as to the Nawab's previous ones.

"'How?' said the Nawab, looking angrily at me instead

of at Mr. Watts: 'who am I then?' All the members of his

Court cried out together that his orders would certainly be

attended to."

As Law expected, Chandernagore was attacked before the Admiral's reply was received. Law received the news on the 15th, and hurried to the Nawab. Reinforcements were ordered and counter-ordered. At midnight the Nawab's eunuch came to inform Law that the English had been repulsed with loss, and on the morning of the 16th the Nawab's troops were ordered to advance, but when the same day news came that the French had withdrawn into the Fort, every one cried out that the Fort must fall, and that it was mere folly to incense the English by sending down troops. They were immediately recalled. Then news arrived that the Fort was holding out, and Rai Durlabh Ram was ordered to advance. Again there came a false report that the Fort had fallen. Law knew Rai Durlabh was a coward, and his whole reliance was on the second in command, Mir Madan:-

"a capable officer, and one who would have attacked the

enemy with pleasure."

This Mir Madan is said to have been a Hindu convert to Muhammadanism. Native poems still tell of the gallantry with which he commanded the Hindu soldiers of the Nawab. He was one of the first to fall at Plassey, and though it cannot be said that his death caused the loss of the battle, it is certain that it put an end to all chance of the victory being contested.

Law was at his wits' end. It was no time to stick at trifles, and, that he might know the worst at once, he intercepted Mr. Watts's letters. From them he gathered that the English intended to march straight upon Murshidabad. He set about fortifying the enclosure round the French Factory, and, as he had only 10 or 12 men, he induced the Nawab to send him a native officer with 100 musketeers. He soon learned that the reported English advance was merely the pursuit of the fugitives from Chandernagore, who were mentioned in the last chapter. By the end of March he had 60 Europeans:-

"of whom the half, in truth, were not fit to serve; but what

did that matter? The number was worth 120 to me outside

the fort, since rumour always delights in exaggeration."

Of the sepoys also, whom the English set free, some 30 found their way to Law, and so far was he now from being afraid of Mr. Watts, that it was the latter who had to ask the Nawab's protection.

The vacillation which had marked the Nawab's conduct previous to the fall of Chandernagore still continued. He protected Law, but would not help him with money.

"Further, at the solicitation of my enemies, the Nawab

sent people to pull down the earthworks I had erected. He

even wished the native agent of the English to be present.

In my life I have never suffered what I did that day. To

the orders of the Nawab I replied that so long as I was in

the Factory no foreigner should touch my fortifications, but

that to keep my agreement with him I was ready to withdraw

and to make over the Factory to him, with which he

could afterwards do as he liked, and for which I should hold

him responsible. At the same time, I made my whole troop

arm themselves, and, having had my munitions loaded on

carts for several days previous, I prepared to depart with

the small amount of money which belonged to me and to

a few other individuals. The Nawab's officer, seeing my

resolution, and fearing to do anything which, might not be

approved, postponed the execution of his orders, and informed

the Nawab of what was happening. He replied that he

absolutely forbade my leaving the Factory, and ordered the

pioneers to be sent away; but at the same time he informed

me that it was absolutely necessary for me to pull down the

earthworks, that under the present circumstances he had

himself to do many things contrary to his own wishes, that

by refusing to obey I should draw the English upon him

and upon us, that we could not defend ourselves and must

therefore submit, that I should not be troubled any more,

and that, finally, he would give me money enough to build

in brick what I had wished to make in earth. I knew well

the value of his promises, but I was forced to humour him.

It did not suit me to abandon the Factory altogether, so I set

my workmen to pull down what I had built, and the same

night the work was finished."

The English now tried to win over the French soldiers, and had some success, for many of them were deserters from the British forces, and they quickly saw how precarious was the shelter which Law could afford them; but the Nawab could not be persuaded to force Law to surrender, and, though he agreed to leave the country, Law declared he would not do even that unless he received passports and money. On the 8th of April he received passports, and was promised that if he would go to Phulbari, near Patna, he should there receive all he wanted. He was allowed four or five days to make his preparations.

"I profited by this interval to persuade the only man

who dared speak for us to got to action. This was the Nazir

Dalal, a man of no importance, but at the same time a man

in whom the Nawab appeared to have some confidence. As

he was constantly at the Factory, I had opportunities of telling

him many things of particular interest to the Nawab, and I

believed that by politeness and presents I had brought him

over to our interests. A little later, however, I learned that

he received quite as much from the English as from us. He

told the Nawab all that he learned from me, viz. the views

of the English and of the Seths, and the risk he himself was

running, and he brought to his notice that the English were

steadily increasing their garrison at Cossimbazar by bringing

up soldiers who pretended they were deserters and wished to

pass over to the Trench. By this trick, indeed, many soldiers

had passed through the Moorish camp without being stopped.

There was also talk of an English fleet preparing to come up

and waiting only for the Nawab's permission. The Nazir

Dalal represented to him that the trading boats might be

loaded with ammunition, and that they ought to be strictly

searched, and the casks and barrels opened, as guns and

mortars might be found in them. The Nawab opened his

eyes at information of this kind, and promptly sent the Nazir

Dalal to tell me not to leave. This order came on the 10th

of April. I accordingly passed my garrison in review before

the Nawab's agent, and a statement showing the monthly

pay of each officer and soldier was sent to the Nawab, who

promised to pay them accordingly."

On the 12th of April Law received a sudden summons to attend the Durbar the next day.

"After some reflection, I determined to obey. I thought

that by taking presents I could avoid the inconveniences I

feared, so I arranged to start early on the morning of the 13th

with five or six persons well armed. A slight rain detained

us till 10 o'clock. On leaving I told my people that M.

Sinfray was their commandant, and ordered him, if I did not

return by 2 o'clock, to send a detachment of forty men to

meet me. We arrived at the Nawab's palace about midday.

He had retired to his harem. We were taken into the

Audience Hall, where they brought us a very bad dinner.

The Nawab, they said, would soon come. However, 5 o'clock

had struck and he had not yet dressed. During this wearisome

interval I was visited by some of the Diwans, among

others by the Arzbegi.[94] I asked him why the Nawab had

called me. He replied with an appearance of sincerity that

as the Nawab was constantly receiving complaints from the

English, about the numerous garrison we had in our Factory,

he had judged it proper to summon both Mr. Watts and

myself in order to reconcile us, and that he hoped to arrange

matters so that the English should have nothing to fear from

us nor we from them. He added that the Nawab was quite

satisfied with my behaviour, and wished me much good. At

last the Durbar hour arrives. I am warned. I pass into a

hall, where I find Mr. Watts and a number of Diwans. The

agent of the Seths is present Compliments having passed,

one of the Diwans asks me if I have anything particular to

say to Mr. Watts. I answer that I have not. Thereupon

Mr. Watts addresses me in English: 'The question is, sir,

whether you are prepared to surrender your Factory to me

and to go down to Calcutta with all your people. You will

be well treated, and will be granted the same conditions as

the gentlemen of Chandernagore. This is the Nawab's wish.'

I reply I will do nothing of the kind, that I and all those

with me are free, that if I am forced to leave Cossimbazar

I will surrender the Factory to the Nawab, and to no one else.

Mr. Watts, turning round to the Diwans, says excitedly, that

it is impossible to do anything with me, and repeats to them

word for word all that has passed between us.

"From that moment I saw clearly that the air of the

Court was not healthy for us. It was, however, necessary to

put a good face on matters. The Arzbegi and some others,

taking me aside, begged me to consider what I was doing in

refusing Mr. Watts's propositions, and said that as the Nawab

was determined to have a good understanding with the

English, he would force me to accept them. They then

asked what I intended to do. I said I intended to stay at

Cossimbazar and to oppose, to the utmost of my power, the

ambitious designs of the English. 'Well, well, what can

you do?' they replied. 'You are about a hundred Europeans;

the Nawab has no need of you; you will certainly be forced

to leave this place. It would be much better to accept the

terms offered you by Mr. Watts.' The same persons who had

begged me to do this then took Mr. Watts aside. I do not

know what they said to each other, but a quarter of an hour

after they went into the hall where the Nawab was.

"I was in the utmost impatience to know the result of

all these parleyings, so much the more as from some words

that had escaped them I had reason to think they intended

to arrest me.

"Fire or six minutes after Mr. Watts had gone to the

Nawab, the Arzbegi, accompanied by some officers and the

agents of the Seths and the English, came and told me aloud,

in the presence of some fifty persons of rank, that the Nawab

ordered me to submit myself entirely to what Mr. Watts

demanded. I told him I would not, and that it was

impossible for the Nawab to have given such an order.

I demanded to be presented to him. 'The Nawab,' they

said, 'does not wish to see you.' I replied, 'It was he who

summoned me; I will not go away till I have seen him.'

The Arzbegi saw I had no intention of giving way, and that

I was well supported, for at this very moment word was

brought of the arrival of our grenadiers, who had been

ordered to come and meet me. Disappointed at not seeing

me appear, they had advanced to the very gates of the palace.

The Arzbegi, not knowing what would be the result of this

affair, and wishing to get out of the scrape and to throw the

burden of it on to the Seths' agent, said to him, 'Do you

speak, then; this affair concerns you more than us.' The

Seths' agent wished to speak, but I did not give him time.

I said I would not listen to him, that I did not recognize

him as having any authority, and that I had no business

at all with him. Thereupon the Arzbegi went back to the

Nawab and told him I would not listen to reason, and that

I demanded to speak to him. 'Well, let him come,' said

the Nawab, 'but he must come alone.' At the same time

he asked Mr. Watts to withdraw and wait for him in a

cabinet. The order to appear being given me, I wish to

go-another difficulty! The officers with me do not wish to

let me go alone! A great debate between them and the

Nawab's officers! At last, giving way to my entreaties,

and on my assuring them that I have no fears, I persuade

them to be quiet and to let me go.

"I presented myself before the Nawab, who returned my

salute in a kindly manner. As soon as I was seated, he told

me, in a shamefaced way, that I must either accept Mr.

Watts's proposals, or must certainly leave his territories.

Your nation is the cause, he said, of all the importunities I

now suffer from the English. I do not wish to put the whole country

in trouble for your sake. You are not strong enough to defend

yourselves; you must give way. You ought to remember that when I had

need of your assistance you always refused it. You ought not to

expect assistance from me now.

"It must be confessed that, after all our behaviour to

him, I had not much to reply. I noticed, however, that the

Nawab kept his eyes cast down, and that it was, as it were,

against his will that he paid me this compliment. I told

him I should be dishonoured if I accepted Mr. Watts's proposals,

but that as he was absolutely determined to expel us

from his country, I was ready to withdraw, and that as soon

as I had the necessary passports I would go towards Patna.

At this every one in concert, except the Nawab and Coja

Wajid, cried out that I could not take that road, that the

Nawab would not consent to it. I asked what road they

wished me to take. They said I must go towards Midnapur

or Cuttack. I answered that the English might at any

moment march in that direction and fall upon me. They

replied I must get out of the difficulty as best I could. The

Nawab, meanwhile, kept his face bent down, listening

attentively, but saying nothing. Wishing to force him to

speak, I asked if it was his intention to cause me to fall into

the hands of my enemies? 'No, no,' replied the Nawab,

'take what road you please, and may God conduct you.' I

stood up and thanked him, received the betel,[95] and went out."

Gholam Husain Khan says that the Nawab was much affected at parting with Law, as he now believed in the truth of his warnings against the English and the English party,-

"but as he did not dare to keep him in his service for fear

of offending the English, he told him that at present it was

fit that he should depart; but that if anything new should

happen he would send for him again. 'Send for me again?'

answered Law. 'Rest assured, my Lord Nawab, that this is

the last time we shall see each other. Remember my words: we

shall never meet again. It is nearly impossible."

Law hurried back to his Factory, and by the evening of the 15th of April he was ready to depart. The same day the Nawab wrote to Clive:-

"Mr. Law I have put out of the city, and have wrote

expressly to my Naib[96] at Patna to turn him and his attendants

out of the bounds of his Subaship, and that he shall not

suffer them to stay in any place within it."[97]

At the end of April the Nawab wrote to Abdulla Khan, the Afghan general at Delhi, that he had supplied Law with Rs.10,000. Clive was quickly informed of this.

On the morning of the 16th the French marched through Murshidabad with colours flying and drums beating, prepared against any surprise in the narrow streets of the city. Mr. Watts wrote to Clive:-

"They had 100 Europeans, 60 Tellingees, 30 hackerys"

(i.e. bullock-waggons) "and 4 elephants with them."[98]

Close on their track followed two spies, sent by Mr. Watts to try and seduce the French soldiers and sepoys. Law left a M. Bugros behind in charge of the French Factory.

Shortly after leaving Cossimbazar, Law was reinforced by a party of 45 men, mostly sailors of the Saint Contest, who had managed to escape from the English. On the 2nd of May the French arrived at Bhagulpur, the Nawab writing to them to move on whenever he heard they were halting, and not to go so fast when he heard they were on the march.

"To satisfy him we should have been always in motion

and yet not advancing; this did not suit us. It was of the

utmost importance to arrive at some place where I could

find means for the equipment of my troop. We were

destitute of everything."

These contradictory orders, and even letters of recall, reached Law on his march, but though he sent back M. Sinfray with letters to M. Bugros and Coja Wajid-which the latter afterwards made over to Clive-he continued his march to Patna, where he arrived on the 3rd of June, and was well received by Raja Ramnarain, and where he was within four or five days' march or sail from Sooty, the mouth of the Murshidabad or Cossimbazar river, and therefore in a position to join the Nawab whenever it might be necessary.

In the mean time fate had avenged Law on one of his lesser enemies. This was that Ranjit Rai, who had insulted him during his interview with the Seths. The latter had pursued their old policy of inciting the English to make extravagant demands which they at the same time urged the Nawab to refuse. To justify one such demand, the English produced a letter in the handwriting of Ranjit Rai, purporting to be written at the dictation of the Seths under instructions from the Nawab. The latter denied the instructions, and the Seths promptly asserted that the whole letter was a forgery of their agent's.

"The notorious Ranjit Rai was driven in disgrace from

the Durbar, banished, and assassinated on the road. It was

said he had received 2 lakhs from the English to apply his

masters' seal unknown to them. I can hardly believe this.

This agent was attached to the English only because he knew

the Seths were devoted to them."

This incident warned the Seths to be more cautious, but still the plot against the Nawab was well known in the country. Renault, who had been at this time a prisoner in Calcutta, says:-

"Never was a conspiracy conducted as publicly and with

such indiscretion as this was, both by the Moors and the

English. Nothing else was talked about in all the English

settlements, and whilst every place echoed with the noise of

it, the Nawab, who had a number of spies, was ignorant of

everything. Nothing can prove more clearly the general

hatred which was felt towards him."[99]

M. Sinfray had returned to Murshidabad, but could not obtain an interview with the Nawab till the 8th of June, when he found him still absolutely tranquil; and even on the 10th the Nawab wrote to Law to have no fears on his account; but this letter did not reach Law till the 19th.

"I complained of the delay in the strongest terms to

Ramnarain, who received the packets from the Nawab, but it

was quite useless. The Nawab was betrayed by those whom

he thought most attached to him. The Faujdar of Rajmehal

used to stop all his messengers and detain them as long as

he thought fit."

This officer was a brother of Mir Jafar.[100] The Seths and the English had long found the chief difficulty in their way to be the choice of a man of sufficient distinction to replace Siraj-ud-daula on the throne. At this moment the Nawab himself gave them as a leader Mir Jafar Ali Khan, who had married the sister of Aliverdi Khan, and was therefore a relative of his. Mir Jafar was Bukshi, or Paymaster and Generalissimo of the Army, and his influence had greatly contributed to Siraj-ud-daula's peaceful accession. He was a man of good reputation, and a brave and skilful soldier. It was such a person as this that the Nawab, after a long course of petty insults, saw fit to abuse in the vilest terms in full Durbar and to dismiss summarily from his post. He now listened to the proposals of the Seths, and towards the end of April terms were settled between him and the English.[101] The actual conclusion of the Treaty took place early in June, and on the 13th of that month Mr. Watts and the other English gentlemen at Cossimbazar escaped under the pretence of a hunting expedition and joined Clive in safety. As soon as he heard of this, the Nawab knew that war was inevitable, and it had come at a moment when he had disbanded half his army unpaid, and the other half was grumbling for arrears. Not only had he insulted Mir Jafar, but he had also managed to quarrel with Rai Durlabh. Instead of trying to postpone the conflict until he had crushed these two dangerous enemies, he begged them to be reconciled to him, and put himself in their hands. Letter after letter was sent to recall Law, but even the first, despatched on the 13th, did not reach Law till the 22nd, owing to the treachery of the Faujdar of Rajmehal. Law's letter entreating the Nawab to await his arrival certainly never reached him, and though Law had started at the first rumour of danger, before getting the Nawab's letter, he did not reach Rajmehal till the 1st of July. The Nawab had been captured in the neighbourhood a few hours before the arrival of his advance-guard. Gholam Husain Khan says that Law would have been in time had the Nawab's last remittance been a bill of exchange and not an order on the Treasury, for-

"as slowness of motion seems to be of etiquette with the

people of Hindustan, the disbursing of the money took up

so much time that when M. Law was come down as far

Rajmehal, he found that all was over."

Law, who was nothing if not philosophical, remarked on this disappointment:-

"In saving Siraj-ud-daula we should have scored a great

success, but possibly he would have been saved for a short

time only. He would have found enemies and traitors

wherever he might have presented himself in the countries

supposed to be subject to him. No one would have acknowledged

him. Forced by Mir Jafar and the English to flee to

a foreign country, he would have been a burden to us rather

than an assistance.

"In India no one knows what it is to stand by an

unfortunate man. The first idea which suggests itself is to

plunder him of the little[102] which remains to him. Besides,

a character like that of Siraj-ud-daula could nowhere find a

real friend."

Siraj-ud-daula, defeated by Clive at Plassey on the 23rd of June, was, says Scrafton,-

"himself one of the first that carried the news of his defeat

to the capital, which he reached that night."

His wisest councillors urged him to surrender to Clive, but he thought this advice treacherous, and determined to flee towards Rajmehal. When nearly there he was recognized by a Fakir,[103] whose ears he had, some time before, ordered to be cut off. The Fakir informed the Faujdar, who seized him and sent him to Murshidabad, where Miran, Mir Jafar's son, put him to death on the 4th of July.

It was necessary for Law to withdraw as quickly as possible if he was to preserve his liberty. Clive and Mir Jafar wrote urgent letters to Ramnarain at Patna to stop him, but Ramnarain was no lover of Mir Jafar, and he was not yet acquainted with Clive, so he allowed him to pass. Law says:-

"On the 16th of July we arrived at Dinapur, eight miles

above Patna, where I soon saw we had no time to lose.

The Raja of Patna himself would not have troubled us much.

By means of our boats we could have avoided him as we

pleased, for though our fleet was in a very bad condition,

still it could have held its own against the naval forces

of Bengal, i.e. the Indian forces, but the English were advancing,

commanded by Major Coote. As the English call

themselves the masters of the aquatic element, it became us

the less to wait for them, when we knew they had stronger

and more numerous boats than we had. Possibly we could

have outsailed them, but we did not wish to give them the

pleasure of seeing us flee. On the 18th instant an order

from the Raja instructed me in the name of Mir Jafar to

halt-no doubt to wait for the English-whilst another on his

own part advised me to hurry off. Some small detachments

of horsemen appeared along the bank, apparently to hinder

us from getting provisions or to lay violent hands on the

boatmen. On this we set sail, resolved to quit all the

dependencies of Bengal. In spite of ourselves we had to

halt at Chupra, twenty-two miles higher up, because our

rowers refused to go further: prayers and threats all seemed

useless. I thought the English had found some means to

gain them over. The boats did not belong to us, but we

should have had little scruple in seizing them had our

Europeans known how to manage them. Unfortunately,

they knew nothing about it. The boats in Bengal have no

keel, and consequently do not carry sail well. So we lost

two days in discussion with the boatmen, but at last, by

doubling their pay, terms were made, and five days after, on

the 25th of July, we arrived at Ghazipur, the first place of

importance in the provinces of Suja-ud-daula, Viceroy of the

Subahs of Oudh, Lucknow, and Allahabad."

Before Law left Rajmehal on his return to Patna, the Faujdar tried to stop him on pretence that Mir Jafar wished to reconcile him to the English. Law thought this unlikely, yet knowing the native proclivity for underhand intrigue, he wrote him a letter, but the answer which he received at Chupra was merely an order to surrender. Law says:-

"I had an idea that he might write to me in a quite

different style, unknown to the English. I knew the new

Nawab, whom I met at the time I was soliciting reinforcements

to raise the siege of Chandernagore. He had not then

taken up the idea of making himself Nawab. He appeared

to me a very intelligent man, and much inclined to do us

service, pitying us greatly for having to work with a man so

cowardly and undecided as Siraj-ud-daula."

Law thought his communication-

"was well calculated to excite in his mind sentiments

favourable to us, but if it did, Mir Jafar let none of them

appear. The Revolution was too recent and the influence of

the English too great for him to risk the least correspondence

with us."

From Clive, on the other hand, he received a letter,-

"such as became a general who, though an enemy, interested

himself in our fate out of humanity, knowing by his own

experience into what perils and fatigues we were going to

throw ourselves when we left the European Settlements."

This letter, dated Murshidabad, July 9th, was as follows:-

"As the country people are now all become your enemies,

and orders are gone everywhere to intercept your passage,

and I myself have sent parties in quest of you, and orders

are gone to Ramnarain, the Naib of Patna, to seize you if

you pursue that road, you must be sensible if you fall into

their hands you cannot expect to find them a generous

enemy. If, therefore, you have any regard for the men

under your command, I would recommend you to treat with

us, from whom you may expect the most favourable terms in

my power to grant."[104]

Law does not say much about the hardships of his flight; but Eyre Coote, who commanded the detachment which followed him, had the utmost difficulty in persuading his men to advance, and wrote to Clive that he had never known soldiers exposed to greater hardships. At Patna Eyre Coote seized the French Factory, where the Chief, M. de la Bretesche, was lying ill. The military and other Company's servants had gone on with Law, leaving in charge a person variously called M. Innocent and Innocent Jesus. He was not a Frenchman, but nevertheless he was sent down to Calcutta. From Patna Eyre Coote got as far as Chupra, only to find Law safe beyond the frontier at Ghazipur, and nothing left for him to do but to return.

From now on to January, 1761, Law was out of the reach of the English, living precariously on supplies sent from Bussy in the south, from his wife at Chinsurah, and from a secret store which M. de la Bretesche had established at Patna unknown to the English, and upon loans raised from wealthy natives, such as the Raja of Bettiah. He believed all along that the French would soon make an effort to invade Bengal, where there was a large native party in their favour, and where he could assist them by creating a diversion in the north. I shall touch on his adventures very briefly.

His first halt was at Benares, which he reached on the 2nd of August, and where the Raja Bulwant Singh tried to wheedle and frighten him into surrendering his guns. He escaped out of his hands by sheer bluff, and went on to Chunargarh, where he received letters from Suja-ud-daula, Nawab of Oudh, a friend of Siraj-ud-daula's, whom he hoped to persuade into invading Bengal. On the 3rd of September he reached Allahabad, and here left his troop under the command of M. le Comte de Carryon, whilst he went on to Lucknow, the capital of Oudh.

It is only at this moment that Law bethinks him of describing his troop. It consisted of 175 Europeans and 100 sepoys drilled in European fashion. The officers were D'Hurvilliers, le Comte de Carryon (who had brought a detachment from Dacca before Law left Cossimbazar), Ensign Brayer (who had commanded the military at Patna), Ensign Jobard (who had escaped from Chandernagore), and Ensign Martin de la Case. He also entertained as officers MM. Debellême (Captain of a French East Indiaman), Boissemont, and La Ville Martère, Company's servants (these three had all escaped from Chandernagore), Dangereux and Dubois (Company's servants stationed at Cossimbazar), Beinges (a Company's servant stationed at Patna), and two private gentlemen, Kerdizien and Gourbin. Besides these, MM. Anquetil du Perron,[105] La Rue, Desjoux, Villequain, Desbrosses, and Calvé, served as volunteers. His chaplain was the Reverend Father Onofre, and he had two surgeons, Dubois and Le Page. The last two were probably the surgeons of Cossimbazar and Patna. He had also with him M. Lenoir, second of Patna, whose acquaintance with the language and the people was invaluable. Law seems to have been always able to recruit his sepoys, but he had no great opinion of them.

"In fact it may be said that the sepoy is a singular

animal, especially until he has had time to acquire a

proper sense of discipline. As soon as he has received his

red jacket and his gun he thinks he is a different man. He

looks upon himself as a European, and having a very high

estimation of this qualification, he thinks he has the right to

despise all the country people, whom he treats as Kaffirs

and wretched negroes, though he is often just as black as they

are. In every place I have been I have remarked that the

inhabitants have less fear of the European soldier, who in

his disorderly behaviour sometimes shows an amount of

generosity which they would expect in vain from a sepoy."

Law has left the following description of Lucknow:-

"Lucknow, capital of the Subah[106] so called, is 160 miles

north of Allahabad, on the other side of the Ganges, and

about 44 miles from that river. The country is beautiful

and of great fertility, but what can one expect from the best

land without cultivation? It was particularly the fate of

this province and of a large portion of Oudh to have been

exhausted by the wars of Mansur Ali Khan.[107] That prince

at his death left the Treasury empty and a quantity of

debts. Suja-ud-daula, his successor, thought he could

satisfy his creditors, all of them officers of the army, by

giving them orders upon several of the large estates. This

method was too slow for these military gentlemen. In a

short time every officer had become the Farmer,[108] or rather the

Tyrant, of the villages abandoned to him. Forcible executions

quickly reimbursed him to an extent greater than his claim,

but the country suffered. The ill-used inhabitants left it,

and the land remained uncultivated. This might have

been repaired. The good order established by Suja-ud-daula

commenced to bring the inhabitants back when an

evil, against which human prudence was powerless, achieved

their total destruction. For two whole years clouds of

locusts traversed the country regularly with the Monsoon,[109]

and reduced the hopes of the cultivator to nothing. When

two days from Lucknow, we ourselves saw the ravages committed

by this insect. It was perfect weather; suddenly we

saw the sky overcast; a darkness like that of a total eclipse

spread itself abroad and lasted a good hour. In less than no

time we saw the trees under which we were camped stripped

of their leaves. The next day as we journeyed we saw that

the same devastation had been produced for a distance of ten

miles. The grass on the roads and every green thing in the

fields were eaten away down to the roots. This recurrent

plague had driven away the inhabitants, even those who had

survived the exactions of the military. Towns and villages

were abandoned; the small number of people who remained-I

am speaking without exaggeration-only served to

augment the horror of this solitude. We saw nothing but

spectres.

"The state of the people of Lucknow city, the residence

of the Nawab, was hardly better. The evil was perhaps less

evident owing to the variety of objects, but from what one

could see from time to time nature did not suffer less. The

environs of the palace were covered with poor sick people

lying in the middle of the roads, so that it was impossible

for the Nawab to go out without causing his elephant to

tread on the bodies of several of them, except when he had

the patience to wait and have them cleared out of the way-an

act which would not accord with Oriental ideas of

grandeur. In spite of this there were few accidents. The

animal used to guide its footsteps so as to show it was

more friendly to human beings than men themselves

were."

At Lucknow Suja-ud-daula greeted him with a sympathetic interest, which Law quaintly likens to that shown by Dido for Aeneas, but money was not forthcoming, and Law soon found that Suja-ud-daula was not on sufficiently good terms with the Mogul's[110] Vizir[111] at Delhi to risk an attack on Bengal. On the 18th of October he returned to Allahabad, with the intention of going to Delhi to see what he could do with the Vizir, but as it might have been dangerous to disclose his object, he pretended he was going to march south to Bussy in the Deccan, and obtained a passport from the Maratha general, Holkar. This took some time, and it was not till March, 1758, that he started for Delhi. He reached Farukhabad without difficulty, and on the 21st entered the country of the Jats. On the evening of the 23rd a barber, who came into their camp, warned the French they would be attacked. The next day the Jats, to the number of 20,000, attacked them on the march. The fight lasted the whole day, and the French fired 6000 musket shots and 800 cannon. The cannon-balls were made of clay moulded round a pebble, and were found sufficiently effective in the level country.

Soon after they arrived at Delhi, only to find the Marathas masters of the situation and in actual possession of the person of the Shahzada, or Crown Prince.[112] The Prince was friendly, gave Law money, and eagerly welcomed the idea of attacking Bengal, but he was himself practically a prisoner. The Vizir, too, could do nothing, and would give no money. The Marathas amused him with promises, and tried to trap him into fighting their battles. No one seemed to know anything about what had happened in Bengal. He spoke to several of the chief men about the English.

"I felt sure that, after the Revolution in Bengal, they

would be the only subject of conversation in the capital. The

Revolution had made much noise, but it was ascribed entirely

to the Seths and to Rai Durlabh Ram. Clive's name was

well known. He was, they said, a great captain whom the

Seths had brought from very far at a great expense, to

deliver Bengal from the tyranny of Siraj-ud-daula, as Salabat

Jang had engaged M. Bussy to keep the Marathas in

order. Many of the principal persons even asked me what

country he came from. Others, mixing up all Europeans

together, thought that I was a deputy from Clive. It was

useless for me to say we were enemies, that it was the

English who had done everything in Bengal, that it was

they who governed and not Jafar Ali Khan, who was only

Nawab in name. No one would believe me. In fact, how

could one persuade people who had never seen a race of

men different from their own, that a body of two or three

thousand Europeans at the most was able to dictate the law

in a country as large as Bengal?"

Law could do nothing at Delhi, and it was only by bribing the Maratha general that he obtained an escort through the Jat country to Agra. Most of his soldiers were glad to be off, but about 60 Europeans deserted with their arms to Delhi, where the Vizir offered them pay as high as 50 rupees a month. M. Jobard was nearly killed by some of them when he tried to persuade them to return to duty, but, a few months after, more than half rejoined Law.

From Agra, Law went to Chatrapur in Bundelkand, where apparently, though he does not say so, he was in the service of the Raja Indrapat. His stay lasted from the 10th of June, 1758, to February, 1759. In order to keep on good terms with the inhabitants, who were almost all Hindus, Law forbade his men to kill cattle or any of the sacred birds, or to borrow anything without his permission, and at the same time severely punished all disorderly behaviour. The people having never heard of Christians, thought the French must be a kind of Muhammadans, but they could not make out from what country they came. Seeing them drink a red wine of which they had a few bottles, they thought they were drinking blood, and were horrified, but the good behaviour of the men soon put them on friendly terms.

Early in 1759 the Shahzada at last invaded Bengal, and on the 5th of February Law marched to join him; but the invasion was badly managed, and was an absolute failure. On the 28th of May Law was back at Chatrapur. The only result of the invasion was that the lands of a number of Rajas in Bihar were plundered by Miran, son of Mir Jafar, and the English. These Rajas were all Hindus.

"They had an understanding with Ramnarain. All these

Rajas, of whom there is a great number in the dependencies

of Bengal, united to each other by the same religion, mutually

support each other as much as they can. They detest the

Muhammadan Government, and if it had not been for the

Seths, the famous bankers, with whom they have close

connections, it is probable that after the Revolution in which

Siraj-ud-daula was the victim, they would all have risen

together to establish a Hindu Government, from which the

English would not have obtained all the advantages they

did from the Muhammadan."

In 1759 the Dutch risked a quarrel with the English. They refused, however, any assistance from Law, who, far away as he was, heard all about it. They were defeated at Biderra on the 25th of November. The effect of this was to reduce Bengal to such tranquillity that Clive considered it safe to visit England. The Shahzada, however, thought the opportunity a favourable one for another invasion, and on the 28th of February, 1760, Law again started to join him. Patna was besieged, and, according to Broome, was very nearly captured, owing to Law's skill and the courage of his Frenchmen. In fact, the French were on the ramparts, when Dr. Fullerton and the English sepoys arrived just in time to drive them back.[113]

The siege was raised, and the Prince's general, Kamgar Khan, led the army about the country with apparently no object but that of plunder. This suited the Marathas, but did not suit Law. On one occasion he was ordered with his own troops and a body of Marathas to capture the little fort of Soupy. The French stormed it at three o'clock in the morning, but found that the Marathas, who had carefully avoided the breach, had swarmed the walls, where there was no one to oppose them, and were carrying off the plunder.

"My chief occupation and that of the officers, for more

than five hours during which we stayed in Soupy, was to

keep our soldiers and sepoys from bayoneting the Marathas,

who, without having incurred the least danger, had, by their

cleverness and lightness, carried off more than twenty times

as much as our own men, observing among themselves a

kind of order in their plundering, very like that of monkeys

when they strip a field."

In fact, Law had a personal altercation with the Maratha commander about a young and beautiful Hindu woman, whom the Maratha wished to seize, but whom Law was determined to restore unhurt to her relations, who lived in a village close by.

For the capture of the fort, Law received from the Shahzada various high-sounding titles and the right to have the royal music played before him; but as he could not afford to entertain the native musicians, he allowed the privilege to sleep.

In 1760 Mr. Vansittart assumed the Governorship of Bengal, and his first act was to complete the project begun by his predecessor, Mr. Holwell, namely, the dethronement of Mir Jafar. This was effected on the 20th of October, 1760; the ex-Nawab went quietly to Calcutta, and Mir Kasim reigned in his stead. The Shahzada had now become Emperor by the death of his father, and had assumed the title of Shah Alam. He was still hanging with his army round Patna, and Mir Kasim and the English determined to bring him to book. Kamgar Khan continued to lead the Imperial army aimlessly about the country, and in January, 1761, found himself near the town of Bihar. He had 35 to 40 thousand cavalry, maintained chiefly by plunder, but his only musketeers and artillery were those commanded by Law, i.e. 125 Europeans and 200 sepoys, with 18 guns of small calibre. The British commander, Major Carnac, had 650 Europeans and 5 to 6 thousand sepoys, with 12 guns. Mir Kasim had some 20,000 cavalry, and the same number of musketeers, all good troops, for "everybody was paid in the army of Kasim Ali Khan."[114]

On the 14th of January, scouts brought word of the approach of the English. The Emperor consulted Law, who advised a retreat, but he was not deficient in courage, and determined to fight. The next day was fought the battle of Suan.[115]

"At the dawn of day we heard that the enemy were on

the march, and that they would quickly appear. No disposition

of our army had yet been made by Kamgar Khan,

who, in fact, troubled himself very little about the matter.

It was at first decided to re-enter the camp, so I put my

men as much as possible under shelter behind a bank, along

which I placed my guns in what I thought the most useful

positions. About 6 or 7 o'clock the enemy were seen

advancing in good order, crossing a canal[116] full of mud and

water, the passage of which might have been easily contested

had we been ready soon enough; but everything was neglected.

For some time we thought the enemy were going

to encamp by the canal, but, seeing that they were still

advancing, the order was given to go and meet them. The

whole army was quickly out of the camp, divided into

several bodies of cavalry, at the head of which were, on their

elephants, the Emperor, the Generalissimo Kamgar Khan,

and other principal chiefs. Scarcely were we out of the camp

when we were halted to await the enemy, everything in the

greatest confusion; one could see no distinction between

right, left, and centre, nothing that had the appearance of

an army intending to attack or even to defend itself.

"An aide-de-camp brought me an order to march ahead

with all my troop, and to place myself in a position which

he pointed out, a good cannon-shot away. Abandoned to

ourselves we should have been exposed to all the fire of the

English, artillery and even to be outflanked by the enemy

and captured at the first attack. We advanced a few paces

in obedience to the order, but, seeing no one move to support

us, I suspected they wanted to get rid of us. I therefore

brought back my men to where I had first placed them, on

a line about 200 paces in front of the army.

"The enemy advanced steadily. The English at their

head with all their artillery were already within range of

our guns. They quickly placed their pieces in two batteries

to the right and left, and kept up a very lively cross fire.

In a very short time, having killed many men, elephants,

and horses-amongst others one of mine-they caused the

whole of the Prince's army to turn tail. Kamgar Khan, at

their head, fled as fast as he could, without leaving a single

person to support us. The enemy's fire, opposed to which

ours was but feeble, continued steadily. We were forced to

retire, and did so in good order, having had some soldiers

and sepoys killed and one gun dismounted, which we left on

the field of battle. We regained the village, which sheltered

us for a time. The enemy started in pursuit. Unluckily,

as we issued from the village, our guns traversing a hollow

road, we were stopped by ditches and channels full of mud,

in which the guns stuck fast. As I was trying to disengage

them the English reached us, and surrounded us so as to

cut off all retreat. Then I surrendered with 3 or 4 officers

and about 40 soldiers who were with me, and the guns. It

was about 4 o'clock in the afternoon of the 15th of January,

1761, a moment whose malign influence it was as it were

impossible to resist, since it was that of the surrender of

Pondicherry,[117] a place 300 leagues away from us."

Gholam Husain Khan has left a graphic description of this incident.

"Monsieur Law, with the small force and the artillery

which he could muster, bravely fought the English themselves,

and for some time he made a shift to withstand their

superiority. Their auxiliaries consisted of large bodies of

natives, commanded by Ramnarain and Raj Balav, but the

engagement was decided by the English, who fell with so

much effect upon the enemy that their onset could not be

withstood by either the Emperor or Kamgar Khan. The

latter, finding he could not resist, turned about and fled.

The Emperor, obliged to follow him, quitted the field of

battle, and the handful of troops that followed M. Law,

discouraged by this flight and tired of the wandering life

which they had hitherto led in his service, turned about

likewise and followed the Emperor. M. Law, finding himself

abandoned and alone, resolved not to turn his back. He

bestrode one of his guns and remained firm in that posture,

waiting the moment for his death. This being reported to

Major Carnac, he detached himself from his main body with

Captain Knox and some other officers, and he advanced to

the man on the gun, without taking with him either a guard

or any Telingas[118] at all. Being arrived near, this troop

alighted from their horses, and, pulling their caps from their

heads, they swept the air with them, as if to make him a

salam; and this salute being returned by M. Law in the

same manner, some parley followed in their own language.

The Major, after paying high encomiums to M. Law for his

perseverance, conduct, and bravery, added these words: 'You

have done everything that could be expected from a brave

man; and your name shall be undoubtedly transmitted to

posterity by the pen of history; now loosen your sword from

your loins, come amongst us, and abandon all thoughts of

contending with the English.' The other answered that, if

they would accept of his surrendering himself just as he was

he had no objection, but that as to surrendering himself with

the disgrace of being without his sword, it was a shame he

would never submit to, and that they might take his life if

they were not satisfied with that condition. The English

commanders, admiring his firmness, consented to his surrendering

himself in the manner he wished; after which

the Major, with his officers, shook hands with him in their

European manner, and every sentiment of enmity was instantly

dismissed on both sides. At the same time that

commander sent for his own palky, made him sit in it, and

he was sent to the camp. M. Law, unwilling to see or to be

seen, in that condition, shut up the curtains of the palky for

fear of being recognized by any of his friends at camp, but

yet some of his acquaintances, hearing of his having arrived,

went to him; these were Mir Abdulla and Mustapha Ali

Khan. The Major, who had excused him from appearing in

public, informed them that they could not see him for some

days, as he was too much vexed to receive any company.

Ahmed Khan Koreishi, who was an impertinent talker,

having come to look at him, thought to pay his court to

the English by joking on this man's defeat-a behaviour that

has nothing strange [in it] if we consider the times in which

we live and the company he was accustomed to frequent; and

it was in that notion of his, doubtless, that with much pertness

of voice and air he asked him this question: 'And Bibi

Lass,[119] where is she?' The Major and the officers present,

shocked at the impropriety of the question, reprimanded him

with a severe look and very severe expressions. 'This man,'

they said, 'has fought bravely, and deserves the attention

of all brave men; the impertinences which you have been

offering him may be customary amongst your friends and

your nation, but cannot be suffered in ours, who has it for

a standing rule never to offer an injury to a vanquished foe.'

Ahmed Khan, checked by this reprimand, held his tongue,

and did not answer a word. He tarried about one hour

more in his visit, and then went away much abashed; and

although he was a commander of importance, and one to

whom much honour had always been paid, no one did speak

to him any more, or made a show of standing up at his

departure. This reprimand did much honour to the English;

and it must be acknowledged, to the honour of those

strangers, that as their conduct in war and battle is worthy

of admiration, so, on the other hand, nothing is more modest

and more becoming than their behaviour to an enemy,

whether in the heat of action or in the pride of success and

victory. These people seem to act entirely according to the

rules observed by our ancient commanders and our men of

genius."

Gholam Husain Khan says the victory was decided by the English; the following quotation from Major Carnac's Letter to the Select Committee at Calcutta, dated the 17th of January, 1761, shows how the courage of the British forces saved them from a great disaster.

"It gives me particular pleasure to inform you that we

have not lost a man in the action, but a few of the Nawab's

troops who had got up near our rear suffered considerably

from the explosion of one of the French tumbrils. It seems

the enemy had lain a train to it in hopes of it's catching

while our Europeans were storming the battery, but fortunately

we were advanced two or three hundred yards in

the pursuit before it had effect, and the whole shock was

sustained by the foremost of the Nawab's troops who were

blown up to the number of near four hundred, whereof

seventy or eighty died on the spot."[120]

Law continues:-

"The next morning, as the English army started in

pursuit of the Emperor Shah Alam, Major Carnac, from

whom, I must mention in passing, I received all possible

marks of attention and politeness, sent me to Patna, where

in the English Chief, Mr. McGwire, I found an old friend,

who treated me as I should certainly have treated him in

like circumstances. I was in need of everything, and he let

me want for nothing."

Thus ended Law's attempt to maintain the French party in Bengal. All hopes of a French attack in force on Calcutta had long since disappeared, and, under the circumstances, his capture was fortunate for himself and his comrades. Most of the latter were gradually picked up by the English. Law was sent to Calcutta, and left Bengal in 1762. He was now only forty-two years of age. On his arrival in France he found his services much appreciated by his countrymen, and was made a Chevalier of the Royal and Military Order of St. Louis, and a Colonel of Infantry. Later on he was appointed Commissary for the King, Commandant of the French Nation in the East Indies, and Governor of Pondicherry. Law's account of his adventures was commenced at Paris in 1763.[121] There exist letters written by him to the historian Robert Orme, dated as late as 1785, which show the strong interest he always retained in the affairs of Bengal, where with adequate resources he might have played a much more distinguished part.

We have seen a town besieged by a foreign army; we have seen the Court of a great Prince distracted by internal dissensions and trembling at the approach of a too-powerful enemy, and now we shall pass to the quiet retreats of rural Bengal, which even their remoteness could not save from some share in the troubles of the time. In those days, even more than at present, the rivers were the great highways of the country, but it needs personal acquaintance with them to enable us to realize the effect they produce upon the mind of a European. As a rule comparatively shallow, in the dry weather they pursue a narrow winding course in the middle of a sandy waste, but in the Rains they fill their beds from side to side, overtop the banks, and make the country for miles around a series of great lakes, studded with heavily wooded islands. Amidst these one can wander for days hardly seeing a single human being, and hearing nothing but the rushing of the current and the weird cries of water-birds; at other times the prow of one's boat will suddenly push itself through overhanging branches into the very midst of a populous village. At first all is strange and beautiful, but after a short time the feeling grows that every scene is a repetition; the banks, the trees, the villages, seem as if we have been looking at them for a thousand years, and the monotony presses wearily on mind and heart. It was in a country of this kind that Courtin and his little band of Frenchmen and natives evaded capture for nearly nine months, and it adds to our admiration for his character to see how his French gaiety of heart unites with his tenderness for his absent wife, not only to conceal the deadly monotony of his life in the river districts during the Rains, and the depressing and disheartening effect of the noxious climate in which he and his companions had to dwell, but also to make light of the imminent danger in which he stood from the unscrupulous human enemies by whom he was surrounded.

Notes:

[65: From certain letters it appears that, strictly speaking, the English Factory alone was at Cossimbazar, the French being at Saidabad, and the Dutch at Calcapur. Both Saidabad and Calcapur were evidently close to Cossimbazar, if not parts of it.]

[66: George Lodewijk Vernet, Senior Merchant.]

[67: The historian Malleson also confuses the two brothers.]

[68: The best copy I have seen is that in the Manuscript Department of the British Museum.]

[69: Gholam Husain Khan says that Siraj-ud-daula was born in the year in which Aliverdi Khan obtained from the Emperor the firman for Bihar. This, according to Scrafton, was 1736, and the connection of his birth with this auspicious event was the prime cause of his grandfather's great reference for him.]

[70: See note, p. 88.]

[71: Uncle of Siraj-ud-daula, who died so shortly before the death of Aliverdi Khan, that it was supposed he was poisoned to ensure Siraj-ud-daula's accession.]

[72: Fazl-Kuli-Khan. Scrafton.]

[73: Law says; "The rumour ran that M. Drake replied to the messengers that, since the Nawab wished to fill up the Ditch, he agreed to it provided it was done with the heads of Moors. I do not believe he said so, but possibly some thoughtless young Englishman let slip those words, which, being heard by the messengers, were reported to the Nawab."]

[74: Europeans. Properly, Franks or Frenchmen. This term was generally applied by Europeans to the half-caste descendants of the Portuguese.]

[75: Captains or generals: a term of somewhat indefinite meaning.]

[76: In alliance with Salabat Jang, Bussy temporarily acquired a large territory for the French.]

[77: "After Mr. Law had given us a supply of clothes, linen, provisions, liquors, and cash, we left his Factory with grateful hearts and compliments." Holwell. Letter to Mr. Davis, February 28, 1757.]

[78: Imperial Charter.]

[79: For an explanation of the influence of the Seths, see pp. 84, 85, and note.]

[80: Ramnarain is an interesting character. He appears to have been one of the most faithful of the adherents of the house of Aliverdi Khan and on its extinction of the English connection. His gallantry in battle is referred to by Colonel Ironside. Asiatic Annual Register, 1800.]

[81: The official intimation reached Admiral Watson in January, 1757, but apparently not the formal orders from the Admiralty. See page 30.]

[82: In a letter to the Secret Committee, London, dated October 11, 1756, Clive writes: "I hope we shall be able to dispossess the French of Chandernagore." So it is evident that he came with this intention to Bengal.]

[83: Clive describes Hugli as "the second city in the kingdom." Letter to Lord Hardwicke, Feb. 23, 1757.]

[84: Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa.]

[85: Hearing that Seth Mahtab Rai was to marry a wonderfully beautiful woman, he forced the Seths to let him see the young lady. Scrafton.]

[86: "If one is to believe certain English writers, the Seths were an apparently insurmountable obstacle to the project because of the money we owed them, as if in their perilous position these bankers would not be inclined to sacrifice something to save the greater part. Besides, we shall see by what follows that they sacrificed nothing." Law. The extraordinary influence of these people was due not so much to their dealings with the head of the State as to the fact that native princes generally make payments, not in cash, but in bonds. It therefore depends on the bankers what any man shall get for his bonds. In this way an official, even when paid by the State, may be ruined by the bankers, who are merely private persons.]

[87: "In India it is thought disrespectful to tell a great man distinctly the evil which is said of him. If an inferior knows that designs are formed against the life of his superior, he must use circumlocutions, and suggest the subject in vague terms and speak in enigmas. It is for the great man to divine what is meant. If he has not the wit, so much the worse for him. As a foreigner, I was naturally more bold and said what I thought to Siraj-ud-daula. Coja Wajid did not hesitate to blame me, so that for a long time I did not know what to think of him. This man finally fell a victim to his diplomacies, perhaps also to his imprudences. One gets tired of continual diplomacy, and what is good in the beginning of a business becomes in the end imprudence." Law.]

[88: "Witness the letter written to the English Admiral Watson, by which it is pretended the Nawab authorized him to undertake the siege of Chandernagore. The English memoir" (by Luke Scrafton) "confesses it was a surprise, and that the Secretary must have been bribed to write it in a way suitable to the views of Mr. Watts. The Nawab never read the letters which he ordered to be written; besides, the Moors never sign their names; the envelope being closed and well fastened, the Secretary asks the Nawab for his seal, and seals it in his presence. Often there is a counterfeit seal." Law. From this it may be seen that the Nawab could always assert that his Secretary had exceeded his instructions, whilst it was open to his correspondent to assert the contrary.]

[89: The clerks.]

[90: "This was the boaster Rai Durlabh Ram, who had already received much from me, but all the treasures of the Universe could not have freed him from the fear he felt at having to fight the English. He had with him as his second in command a good officer, Mir Madan, the only man I counted upon." Law.]

[91: Referring to Clive's letter of the 7th of March, saying he wished to attack Chandernagore, but would await the Nawab's orders at that place.]

[92: By "agent" Law must mean simply an agent in the plot.]

[93: Scrafton, in his "Reflections" (pp. 40 and 50), says, Siraj-ud-daula indulged in all sorts of debauchery; but his grandfather, in his last illness, made him swear on the Koran to give up drinking. He kept his oath, but probably his mind was affected by his previous excesses.]

[94: Arzbegi, i.e. the officer who receives petitions.]

[95: A preparation of betel-nut (areca-nut) is used by the natives of Hindustan as a digestive. When offered to a guest, it is a sign of welcome or dismissal. When sent by a messenger, it is an assurance of friendship and safe conduct.]

[96: The Governor of Patna was Raja Ramnarain, a Hindu, with the rank of Naib only. It was considered unsafe to entrust so important a post to a Muhammadan, or an officer with the rank of Nawab.]

[97: Orme MSS. India XI., p. 2779, No. 120.]

[98: Ibid., India IX., p. 2294.]

[99: Letter from Renault to Dupleix. Dated Chandernagore, Sept. 4, 1757.]

[100: Broome (p. 154) gives his name as Mir Daood.]

[101: The Council signed the Treaty with Mir Jafar on the 19th of May, but Mr. Watts's first intimation of his readiness to join the English is, I believe, in a letter dated the 26th of April. Mir Jafar signed the Treaty early in June.]

[102: So Suja-ud-daula, Nawab of Oudh, plundered the Nawab Mir Kasim, when the English drove him from Bengal in 1763.]

[103: Broome (p. 154) says "a fakier, named Dana Shah, whose nose and ears he had ordered to be cut off thirteen months before, when on his march against the Nawaub of Purneah."]

[104: Orme MSS., India Office, and Clive correspondence at Walcot, vol. iv.]

[105: The celebrated traveller. He quickly quarrelled with and left them.]

[106: Province.]

[107: Nawab of Oudh and father of Suja-ud-daula.]

[108: I.e. the receiver of the rent or revenue.]

[109: The regular winds of the various seasons are called monsoons, and are named after the point of the compass from which they blow.]

[110: Alamgir II.]

[111: Imad-ul-mulk, Ghazi-ud-din Khan.]

[112: Ali Gauhar, born 1728. On the death of his father, November 29, 1759, he assumed the name or title of Shah Alam.]

[113: The old English Factory at Patna was re-opened by Mr. Pearkes, in July, 1757. See his letters to Council, dated 12th and 14th July, 1757.]

[114: Kasim Ali had a much better army than any of his predecessors. Though it was not trained in the European manner, several of the chief officers were Armenians, who effected great reforms in discipline. Three years later it made a really good fight against the English.]

[115: The battle is generally known as that of Gaya, but was fought at Suan. The site is marked in Rennell's map of South Bihar. It lies about six miles west of the town of Bihar, on the river Banowra.]

[116: The Banowra River.]

[117: The French capital on the Madras coast. Surrendered to Eyre Coote.]

[118: Sepoys, so called from the Telingana district in Madras, where they were first recruited.]

[119: Mrs. Law. Bibi is the equivalent of mistress or lady. Lass was the native version of Law. Mrs. Law's maiden name was Jeanne Carvalho.]

[120: Bengal Select Com. Consultations, 28th January, 1761.]

[121: "A part of these Memoirs was written at Paris in 1703, and part at sea in 1764, during my second voyage to India, but several of the notes were added later." Law.]

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