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Meanwhile the Shah Zada continued his hurried flight by crossing the river Caramnassa into Oude, where he expected to obtain assistance from his ally; but the Nabob, with the usual Indian faithlessness, declared himself the enemy of the fugitive prince, who, now deserted by all, knew not whom to trust or where to flee. Considering that Clive had more generosity as well as power than all his false friends put together, he threw himself on the mercy of this English foe. Nor was he mistaken. Clive supplied him with money to enable him to escape to some safer country. He then directed his arms against some of the Rajpoot chiefs of Bahar, who had assisted Shah Zada; and having reduced them to submission by policy, rather than by fighting, having tranquilized the whole country by processes which appeared to the native mind to partake of the nature of magic, Clive returned quietly to Calcutta, and resumed his post as Governor of the East India Company's enlarged possessions in the province of Bengal.

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CHAPTER XII.

CLIVE'S FIRST GOVERNMENT OF BENGAL.

G

A.D. 1757-1760.

REAT were the services which Clive had ren

dered to his ally, Meer Jaffier, as well as to this poor phantom of a power now rapidly passing away, the Great Mogul, whose firmans still retained their prestige with myriads of the natives of Hindostan who saw in him the descendant of the once mighty Aurungzebe. The Emperor's vizier informed Clive, as one mark of special favour, that the English were at liberty to erect a factory at the imperial city of Delhi, little anticipating that in that very place a century later the last representative of the Great Mogul would be condemned to death, and most deservedly so, for crimes committed against that very power which was then beginning, through the valour and skill of Clive, to undermine and eventually to supplant his own.

He

The joy of Meer Jaffier was as unbounded as his fears had been great, and they led him to bestow on his preserver a princely token of gratitude. obtained for Clive a patent of nobility from the Emperor, who conferred on him the title of "Shoukut Jung," together with a jahgeer or estate of the value of three lacs or £30,000 a year, from the quit

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rent which the East India Company were bound to pay to the Nabob for the extensive lands held by them to the south of Calcutta, and which in addition to his previous gains enabled Clive to vie in amount of fortune with the richest members of the British peerage.

But the gratitude of Meer Jaffier did not last long. He began gradually to suspect that the power which had set him up might pull him down; hence he commenced seeking support against the formidable strength by which he himself had hitherto been upheld. He well knew how impossible it would be to find an army in India which could withstand the English, small though their numbers were, when commanded by such a general as Clive had proved himself to be. The power of the French had been completely destroyed in Bengal; but the fame of the Dutch had once been great in the Eastern seas, and it was not known in India how greatly their power had declined in Europe. Secret communications passed between Meer Jaffier and the Dutch at Chinsurah, and urgent letters were sent exhorting the Batavian Government to fit out an expedition which might balance the power of the English in Bengal. The Dutch authorities were naturally eager to extend their authority, and to share with the English some of the gorgeous spoils of the East.

At this moment there was no war in Europe between England and Holland; but the governors of the various European settlements in India frequently acted upon the principle of the old buccaneers in America-that treaties binding on European nations did not extend to the regions in which they

were living, and that there was no peace beyond the equinoctial line. The Batavian Government were as ready to send an expedition as the Dutch traders at Chinsurah were to request it; and before long news reached Calcutta that a great armament, like the Spanish Armada of two centuries before, was preparing to contest the prize of Bengal with the hitherto triumphant English.

Meer Jaffier played his part well. When Clive sent him notice of the approaching invasion, he pretended to be greatly alarmed, and expressed his hope that the English, in virtue of the existing treaty, would oppose it with all their might. In August, 1759, a single Dutch ship of war arrived in the Hooghly, with European troops on board. Clive reported its arrival to the Nabob, who sent a pretended threatening letter to the Dutch, while he ordered his troops at the town of Hooghly to join the English. The Dutch solemnly protested that this ship had been driven in by stress of weather, and would retire as soon as water and provisions were obtained. The vessel, however, continued to lie where she was, and attempts were secretly made to forward the troops to Chinsurah by concealing them in the bottom of native boats; but this failed, by Clive giving orders that every native boat should be stopped and scarched. The Dutch remonstrated against such proceedings; but Clive, thoroughly aroused to the coming danger, continued to stop the soldiers, and to send them back to their vessel, blandly informing the Dutch authorities at Chinsurah that he was in Bengal in a double capacity; first, as an English officer, whose country being at war with France, he

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was justified in searching all vessels, to see that no French troops were introduced into the country; and second, as an auxiliary to the Great Mogul he was bound by treaty to oppose the introduction of any European or foreign troops whatever into the province of Bengal.

Two months later Meer Jaffier arrived in person at Calcutta, under the pretence of honouring Clive with a visit. The day after his arrival Clive received intelligence that six more Dutch ships of war had arrived at the mouth of the Hooghly, crammed with soldiers, partly Europeans and partly Malays, from Batavia and other settlements of the Dutch. "Now," wrote Clive, "the Dutch mask fell off, and the Nabob, conscious of his own unfaithful dealings with us, was greatly disconcerted and confused." He, however, sought to make light of it; told Clive he was going to reside at Hooghly for a few days, from whence he would chastise the insolence of the Dutch, and drive them speedily from the river, where they had no business to be.

On quitting Calcutta a few days later, in place of going to Hooghly as he pretended, the Nabob took up his abode at a place about half-way between the fort and Chinsurah, where he received the Dutch authorities, who came to visit him in the most gracious and friendly manner, writing at the same time to Clive to inform him that he had thought proper to grant some slight indulgence to the Dutch, whose ships would quit the river as soon as the season would permit. But Clive was too experienced to be so easily deceived, especially as at that very time the season would have permitted the departure