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 Chap. XII.] PLOTS OF MEEK JAFFIER AND MEEKUN. Ii55

after having long been in the confidence of Roydulhib, had conceived the idea au itgo.

of elevating himself upon his ruin. When the tuncaws gi-anted for the pajment

of the treaty monies proved unproductive, Nuncomar artfully insiniiated that

the fault lay with Roydullub ; and volunteered, that if full authority were given ConBpiracy

. against

him, he woiild make the amount forthcoming. The offer was too welcome not RojUiaiub to be accepted, and Nuncomar thus became an ostensible agent of the Company, while Roydullub lost his interest with them, and could no longer calculate on their protection. This change of feeling was soon made known to the nabob and his son, who lost no time in turning it to account. Roydullub, aware of the extent of his danger, requested leave to retire with his family and effects to Cal- cutta. Even this was refused him, unless he previously furnished money for the payment of the troops, who were clamouring for their arrears. Wliile matters were in this state, the nabob set out on his Calcutta visit. Only two days after he was gone, Meerun surrounded Roydullub's house with a body of troops, and was preparing to seize his person, when the Company's agents came to the rescue, just in time to save his life, by sending him off to Calcutta under escort. Meerun, enraged at the escape of his principal victim, vented his s])ite on the members of his family, and detained them as prisoners, till Warren Hastings, who had succeeded Scrafton as the Company's resident at Moorshedabad, was able to send them also to Calcutta. It would be useless to detail the series of intrigues which followed, and in which the nabob and his son, still bent on the destruc- tion of Roydullub, showed that there were no means too base for them to employ in order to accompUsh it.

The nabob, while thus occupied with despicable intrigues, received startling Theahazmia intelligence from the west. Shah Alum, the eldest son of the Mogul emperor, uTnlres! Alumgeer II., and then better known by the title of Shazada, belonging to him as heir apparent to the throne, had arrived at Benares in the beginning of 1759, at the head of an army of 8000 men. His father was virtually a prisoner in the hands of the vizier Ghazi-u-din, and he himself had only escaped similar thraldom by suddenly quitting Delhi. This step appears to have been taken with the sanction of his fother, who had previously conferred upon him the government of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa. This sanction, however, was not avowed, and hence the shazada appeared in a double character. According to one view, he was his father's representative, and carried all the weight which, notwithstanding the low condition to which the empire had fallen, was still attached to the name of the ]Iogul. According to another view, he was a rebellious son, who had quitted his father's court without permission, and was engaged in treasonable designs. This double character put it in the power of the different governors to ado])t the view which was most accordant with their inclination or their interest, and hence many stood aloof while others flocked to his standard. The most powerful chief who had openly espoused his cause was Mahomed Cooly Khan, the governor of Allahabad ; but it was underi^tood