Page:History of the French in India.djvu/374

 350 BUSSY TO 1764. 3 **at monarch found himself too beset with difficulties of his -v— ^ own to pay much attention to the affairs of the Dakhan. 1751. It was in consequence of this, and of the increasing anarchy at Delhi in succeeding reigns, that the satrapy of Haidarabad — the appointment to the government of which still remained nominally with the Emperor — came to be regarded virtually as an appanage of the family of Nizam-ul-Mulk. It was, however, the know- ledge that the real appointment was vested in the Emperor, which induced the various claimants of the family of Nizam-ul-Mulk to the Subadari to fortify their pretensions by the publication of an imperial firman. It was by virtue of such a rescript, real or pretended, that on the death of Nizam-ul-Mulk, his son, Nasir Jang, set forth his claims to be his successor. Relying upon the same authority, the validity of which was equally doubtful, Muzaffar Jang disputed those claims. When death had removed these two competitors, and the French general, Bussy, had elevated the third son of Nizam-ul-Mulk, Salabat Jang, to the dignity, that nobleman, records Mr. Orme, " did not think it safe to appear in sight of the capital before he had acted the stale but pompous ceremony of receiving from the hands of an ambassador, said to be sent by the Great Mughal, letters patent, appointing him viceroy of all the countries which had been under che jurisdiction of his father, Nizam-ul-Mulk." Salabat Jang, however, was but the third son of that famous viceroy. The elder brother, Ghazi-ud-dm, had indeed, as we have stated, preferred, on the death of his father, to give a sullen acquiescence in the elevation of his second brother, Nasir Jang, to the Subadari, rather than to plunge into a contest with one who had taken care to possess himself of his father's treasure. But time had changed the aspect of affairs. Nasir Jang had gone, Muzaffar Jang had gone, and in their stead reigned Salabat Jang — a man born in luxury, unused