take in what concerns me.  I am resolved to do you as much good as Salabat Jang[76] has done you in the Deccan, but if you refuse my friendship and the offers I make you, you will soon see me fall on you and cause you to experience the same treatment that I am now preparing for others in your favour.’  He wished us to send down at once to Calcutta all the ships and other vessels which were at Chandernagore.  After having thanked him for his favourable disposition towards us, I represented to him that we were not at war with the English, that what had happened on the Coromandel Coast was a particular affair which we had settled amicably, and that the English, in Bengal having given us no cause of offence, it was impossible for us, without orders either from Europe or Pondicherry, to give him the assistance he asked for.  Such reasons could only excite irritation in the mind of a man of Siraj-ud-daula’s character.  He swore he would have what he wanted whether we wished it or not, and that, as we lived in his country, his will ought to be law to us.  I did my best to appease him, but uselessly.  At the moment of his departure his sent us word by one of his uncles that he still counted on our assistance, and he sent me a letter for the Governor of Pondicherry, in which he begged him to give us the necessary orders.  I thought to myself this was so much time gained.”

The Nawab captured Calcutta without any open assistance from the French, and, though he set free most of the prisoners who survived the Black Hole, he sent Holwell and three others before him to Murshidabad.  Law, who had already sheltered Mrs. Watts and her family, and such of the English of Cossimbazar as had been able to escape to him, now showed similar kindness to Holwell and his companions.  Of this he says modestly:—­

“The gratitude Mr. Holwell expresses for a few little services which I was able to render him makes me regret my inability to do as much to deserve his gratitude as I should have liked to do."[77]

He also, apparently with some difficulty, obtained consent to M. Courtin’s request for the release of the English prisoners at Dacca; for—­

  “Siraj-ud-daula, being informed that there were two or
  three very charming English ladies at Dacca, was strongly
  tempted to adorn his harem with them.”

Law’s success in these matters is a striking instance of his personal influence, for Siraj-ud-daula was by no means any longer well disposed towards the French and Dutch.

“The fear of drawing on his back all the European nations at once had made him politic.  At first he pretended to be satisfied with the reply sent by the Governor of Chandernagore, and assured him that he would always treat us with the greatest kindness.  He said the same to the Dutch, but when Calcutta was taken the mask fell.  He had nothing more to fear.  Scarcely had he arrived at Hugli when he sent detachments to Chandernagore