Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/166

160 of two days; for Roydoolub came to the city on the third of June. He being informed of the stipulations, objected that all the money in the Nabob's treasury was not sufficient to answer them, and proposed as a just compromise, that whatsoever might be found should be equally divided between the Nabob and the English. Mr. Watts nevertheless would not recede from any of the sums which had been stipulated, and represented to him, that if an equal division was established, the English could not allow the usual commission of five in the hundred to the officer who should be appointed to manage the business of the treasury; but proffered this office with that emolument to him, provided he would consent to all their demands. This argument prevailed: Roydoolub relinquished his objections, and Meer Jaffier signed the treaties on the fourth of June. On the same day the Nabob, not from any suspicion of the confederacy, but from his pre-conceived aversion to Meer Jaffier, ordered him to resign the command of the army to an officer named Coja Haddee.

It still remained necessary that Meer Jaffier should take an oath to observe the treaties. Mr. Watts therefore proposed an interview; which Jaffier wished likewise; but objected, that they could not meet without great risque of discovery, since his palace was strictly watched by the spies of the Nabob. However, Mr. Watts, relying on the fidelity of his own domestics, and on the manners of the country, went in the afternoon from his own house in a covered palankin, such as carry women of distinction, and passed without interruption to Jaffier's palace; who, with his son Meerum, received him in one of the apartments of his seraglio, into which the bearers carried the palanquin. Here they conferred without the risk of observation. Meer Jaffier confessed that the number of troops on whose service he could entirely rely, did not exceed 3000 horse; but expected that several other commanders, whom he knew to be dissatisfied with the Nabob, would turn against him in the day of battle. At all events, he desired that the English troops would immediately take the field, promising, that if the Nabob should determine to defend the city, he would attack his palace as soon as they appeared in sight: if the contest was to be decided by a battle on the plain, he would regulate