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C;:ap. X.j CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE NABOB. o71

appoint those hopes their mutual enemies entertained, by withdrawing his army ad. itst. trom Plassey."

While Clive was thus endeavouring to impose upon the credulity of the I'rogros* o» nabob, and telling him of " that perfect harmony and friendship wldch subsisted racy iigainft between them," he was apparently by the same messenger who carried the uowiaii. letter to the nabob sending letters to Mr. Watts with such passages as the fol- lowing: — "The nabob is a villain, and cannot be trusted; he must be overset, or we must fall." " As for any gratuity the new nabob may bestow on the troop.s, it is left to his generosity and to your and Omichund's management." "1 have wrote the nabob a soothing letter; this accompanies another of the

same kind, and one to Mohuu Loll (the nabob's chief favourite) agreeable to j]

your desire." "To take away all suspicion 1 have ordered aU the artillery and tumbrils to be embarked in boats and sent to Calcutta," but " I am ready, and will engage to be at Nusary in twelve hours after I receive your letter, which place is to be the rendezvous of the whole army." " Tell Meer Jaffier to fear nothing ; that I will join him with 5000 men who never turned their backs; and that if he fails seizing him, we shall be strong enough to di'ive him out of the country. Assure him I will march night and day to his assistance, and stand by him as Jong as I have a man left."

Before the conspiracy reached the point to which we have now brought it, a number of important preliminaries had been arranged. The object was to get quit of Surajah Dowlah at all events; and in this his most influential ministers and subjects were ready to concur. At first, however, there was some difficulty in determining who was to be the new nabob. The earlie-st tho ciaiM- aspirant was Yar Luttief Khan, who commanded 2000 horse in the nabob's ii.e nabob- service, but was at the same time in the pay of the Seats, whom he was ^"^' engaged to defend, even against the nabob himself This officer having requested a secret conference with Mr. Watts, was referred by him to Omichund, to whom he stated that the overthrow of the nabob would be easy, in consequence of the general detestation in which he was held ; and that if the English, whom he had sworn to extirpate, would take advantage of his absence on an intended expedition to Patna against the Afghans, to seize upon Moor.shedabad, they

might, by proclaiming him as tlie new nabob, obtain any advantages for which ||j

they might stipulate. The scheme was approved by Mr. Watts, and forthwith

sanctioned by Clive. Yar Luttief Khan was probably put forward by the ^

Seats merely for the jnu-pose of sounding the views of the English commander,.

for the very next day after the conference, an Aimenian of the name of Petrus came to Mr. Watts with similar proposals from Meer Jaffier, who — declaring that

he w^s in danger of assassination every time he went to tlie dm-bar, and Ij

that the Dewan Roydullub, the Seats, and several officers of the fii-st rank in the army had engaged to join, if the English would assist in dethroning the nabob — requested that if the scheme were accepted tlie terms should be .settled