Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/191

Book VII Thus perished Surajah Dowlah, in the 20th year of his age, and the 15th month of his reign, by the hands of violence, as his father and grandfather had perished before him, and by means not unlike those which were employed by both his grandfathers to destroy the heir of their benefactor, by whom they, as Jaffier by them, had been promoted from obscurity to the highest ranks of the state. There were found with his secretary copies of the letters he had written to Mr. Bussy in Chicacole, and to Mr. Law in Behar. In one to Mr. Bussy, dated a few days after he had sworn to the peace concluded with the English on the 6th of February, he presseth him to send 2000 men under the command of trusty officers, and in another invites him to march himself with his whole force into Bengal. To Mr. Law he writes soon after his departure into Behar, and before the confederacy against himself began to move, that he is determined to attack the English, and orders him to return immediately with his party to Muxadavad. Tyrant as he was, if he had respected the advice of his grandfather Allaverdy, and not have excited the detestation of the Gentoos, at the same time that he was rendering himself dreadful to the principal Mahomedan officers of his court, the English would have found no alliance sufficient to have ventured the risque of dethroning him: but it is probable that the same iniquity of character, which urged him to the destruction of Calcutta, would soon have called forth other avengers of other atrocious deeds.

The party of Frenchmen, with Mr. Law, advanced from Boglipore as soon as they received the last summons of Surajah Dowlah, but so late, that they had not passed Tacriagully, when they heard some confused reports of the battle of Plassy, on which Mr. Law halted, waiting for more certain information. Had he immediately proceeded 20 miles farther, he would the next day have met and saved Surajah Dowlah, and an order of events, very different from those which we have to relate, would in all probability have ensued. After waiting two days at Tacriagully, Mr. Law received intelligence that he was taken; on which he immediately marched back into Behar, intending to offer his service to Ramnarain, the vice-nabob of the province.