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 •5-« JlISTOJiV (JF INDIA. [Book III.

AD 1756. from his service. Tlie whole, numbering about 8000 men, arrived in the vici nity of Patna. Their presence could not be viewed without alarm, and it wdH

Tra-i-ai dcemcd necessary to get rid of them Ijy some mean.s, fcjul or fair. Haii is said

Aii ver.iy s to liavc proposed a scheme for assassinating the leaders, but Zyn Addeen, who.

nephow. thougli the youngest of the nabob's nephews, was expecting to succeed hirn, thought it good policy to conciliate the Afghans, whose military prowess would give him a decided superiority over all rival claimants. The nabob is said to have preferred assassination as the safer policy, but at last, overcome by the urgency of his nephew, who represented that they were anxious to make their submission, he authorized him to receive it. The new terais of service having been adjusted, Zyn Addeen, anxious to give the chiefs a proof of his confidence, and obviate any fears they might have of treachery, received their visits of ceremony, on being restored to favour, in the absence of his guards and presence of only a few household officers. The first day, given to Serdar Khan, pas.sed off quietly. The second day was allotted to Shumsheer Khan. HLs approach was announced by the arrival of nearly 1000 Afghan infontry, who arranged them- selves in the square of the palace. Immediately after the hall of audience was entered by a chief named Morad Sheer Khan, and a crowd of officers, who pressed forward to present their offerings. While Zyn Addeen was intent on the ceremony, one of the Afghans aimed a blow at him with his dagger. It missed, but Morad Sheer Khan immediately followed it up with his sabre, and the governor fell dead on the pillow of his musnud. Haji was the next victim, but was not permitted to die so easily. He was known to have accumulated vast wealth ; but, when dragged before Shumsheer Khan, refused to discover it. Every kind of torture and ignominy failed to overcome his firmness, and at last, after seventeen days of indescribable sufteriBg, death came to his relief On searching his house, seventy lacs of rupees (£700,000), besides jewels and other valuables to a great amount, were found buried. The insurgents gather- ing around them all the discontented spirits of Behar, gained possession of the entire province, and were even able, by leaguing with the Mahrattas, to threaten Bengal. The nabob, however, roused by the strongest of all motives, displayed even more than his wonted ability and intrepidity, and gained two victories in a single day, in the one avenging his murdered kindred by defeating and slaying Shumsheer Khan, and in the other, not so much defeating as terri- fying the Mahrattas, who, after they had di-awn up for the encoimter, fled in confusion, without venturing to risk it.

Death of After the treaty concluded with the Mahrattas in 1751, Ali Yerdy enjoyed

Ali Verdy. rr> • i

some respite from the toils of war. He was sufiermg, however, both from age and disease, and died of dropsy in 1756. He had attained his eightieth year. Death at such a period of life can scarcely be said to have been hastened by any adventitious cause, and yet it is thought that he might have lived longer had he not been visited anew by domestic calamities. His own family consisted