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272 Law's party of Europeans, and intended, in conjunction with Ramnarain, to march into Bengal. The letters from Delhi said, the ministry there disapproved of the accession of Jaffier to the Nabobship; that Mirza Mundee, the son of Surajah Dowlah's younger brother, an infant, ought to have been proclaimed, and that Roydoolub had proposed he should be appointed by the Mogul, with assurances that he should be able to carry the nomination into execution with the assistance of the English. Many probabilities stood against the authenticity of the intelligence from Patna, and the advices from Delhi bore still stronger marks of fiction. On the 10th in the morning the whole city was in consternation, and the troops in their different quarters in tumult. A band of ruffians sent, by Meerum, had in the night entered the palace of Allaverdy's widow, with whom lived the widow of Zaindee Hamed, and her infant grandson Mirza Mundee. They murdered the child, and gave out that they had likewise slain the two mothers. In the morning the three biers were carried publicly to burial, amidst the silent grief and abhorrence of the people; for the two women, exclusive of the high condition from which they had fallen by the death of Surajah Dowlah, were the most respectable of their sex for their virtues and the nobility of their sentiments. The cause was disbelieved. Roydoolub asserted that all the accusations against himself were the inventions of his enemies. The English troops at Cossimbuzar turned out to keep the peace and preserved it. On the 13th Scrafton visited and reproached Mee rum, who, amongst other vindications, still preserving a secret, said, "What, shall not I kill an old woman who goes about in her dooley to stir up the Jemautdars against my father?" A few days after it was discovered that the two women had not been murdered, but had been taken out of the palace, and put into boats, which set off immediately for Dacca; and their pretended biers were exhibited, in order to prevent any interruption to the removal of their persons.

Nevertheless, the death of the child left detestation sufficient to extort farther apologies. The Nabob declared, that he neither commanded nor even had any knowledge of the deed, until it was perpetrated