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 CHAP. IV.

NASEER JUNG ASSUMES THE GOVERNMENT AND IS KILLED. SUCCEEDED BY MOOZUFFIR JUNG, WHO IS ALSO KILLED. SALABUT JUNG CHOSEN AS SUCCESSOR. GHAZEE-OOD-DEEN THE SECOND IS POISONED. SALABUT JUNG SUBSIDISES TROOPS OF THE FRENCH. IS THROWN INTO PRISON BY NIZAM ALEE, WHO USURPS THE THRONE AND MURDERS HIM.

Ghazee-ood-Deen, the eldest son of Nizam-ool-Moolk, and otherwise Ghazee-ood-Deen the Second, being at Delhi, where he held, as his father's substitute, the office of Umeer-ool-Oomrah at the time of his father's death, Naseer Jung, the second son, assumed the government of Hyderabad. Naseer Jung's pretensions were, however, opposed by his nephew, Moozuffir Jung, a favourite grandson of Nizarn-ool-Moolk, who then held the Soobehdaree of Beejapoor, and in support of his claims formed a coalition with Chunda Sahib and the French government of Pondicherry. To remove this competitor, Naseer Jung proceeded direct to the Carnatic, where he was joined by the Jagheerdar of Gootee, the Raja of Mysore, the Nuwabs of Kurpa, Kurnool, and Savanoor, as well as by a small body of English troops under Major, afterwards the celebrated Major-General Stringer Law- rence, the father of the Madras army, and the early friend of the great Lord Olive. On the near approach of the two armies, and on the eve of the battle which was to decide the fate of the two rivals, Moozuffir Jung was suddenly deserted by his French allies, who returned