His wisdom died with him, and in April, 1756, his grandson, Siraj-ud-daula, a young man of nineteen, already notorious for his debauchery and cruelty, came to the throne.

Siraj-ud-daula, though he did not yet know it, was a ruined man when he returned to his capital.

Siraj-ud-daula had not even yet learned the folly of his double policy.

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

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.

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.

Nawajis Muhammad Khan had been at least as vicious as Siraj-ud-daula, and yet he had become the idol of the people.

This was exactly what Siraj-ud-daula wanted.

" Cossimbazar surrendered without firing a shot, owing to the treacherous advice of the Nawab's generals, and Siraj-ud-daula advanced on Calcutta.

" 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.

Naib of Patna, arrived to support Siraj-ud-daula.

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.

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.

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.

When, in 1756, Siraj-ud-daula determined to expel the English, fear and greed combined to make him act.

"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 English had also on their side all the chief officers in the Nawab's armyJafar 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, the writers of the Durbar, and even the eunuchs of the harem.

Mir Jafar was Bukshi, or Paymaster and Generalissimo of the Army, and his influence had greatly contributed to Siraj-ud-daula's peaceful accession.

" 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.

Besides, a character like that of Siraj-ud-daula could nowhere find a real friend.

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.

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.

[Footnote 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.

[Footnote 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.]

I had taken the precaution to provide myself with a parwana, or passport, signed by Siraj-ud-daula, allowing me to go where I pleased.