and Chinsurah to summon the commandants to pay contributions, or to resolve to see their flags taken away and their forts demolished.  In short, we were forced to yield what the Nawab demanded; whilst he, as he said, was content with having punished a nation which had offended him, and with having put the others to ransom to pay for the expenses of the expedition.  We saw the tyrant reappear in triumph at Murshidabad, little thinking of the punishment which Providence was preparing for his crimes, and to make which still more striking, he was yet to have some further successes.”

It may be here pointed out that, not only did the Nawab not insist on the destruction of the French and Dutch fortifications, but he did not destroy the fortifications of Calcutta.  This proves that if the English had shown the humility and readiness to contribute which he desired, he would have left them in peace at the first, or, after the capture of Calcutta, have permitted them to resettle there without farther disturbance.  In short, the real necessity of making the European nations respect his authority, instead of guiding him in a settled course, merely provided a pretext for satisfying his greed.  This is the opinion, not only of the French and English who were at Murshidabad when the troubles began, but of the English officials who went there later on and made careful inquiries amongst all classes of people in order to ascertain the real reason of Siraj-ud-daula’s attack upon the English.

His avarice was to prove the Nawab’s ruin.

“Siraj-ud-daula was one of the richest Nawabs that had ever reigned.  Without mentioning his revenues, of which he gave no account at the Court of Delhi, he possessed immense wealth, both in gold and silver coin, and in jewels and precious stones, which had been left by the preceding three Nawabs.  In spite of this he thought only of increasing his wealth.  If any extraordinary expense had to be met he ordered contributions, and levied them with extreme rigour.  Having never known himself what it was to want money, he supposed that, in due proportion, money was as common with other people as with himself, and that the Europeans especially were inexhaustible.  His violence towards them was partly due to this.  In fact, from his behaviour, one would have said his object was to ruin everybody.  He spared no one, not even his relatives, from whom he took all the pensions and all the offices which they had held in the time of Aliverdi Khan.  Was it possible for such a man to keep his throne?  Those who did not know him intimately, when they saw him victorious over his enemies and confirmed as Nawab by a firman[78]from the Great Mogul, were forced to suppose that there was in his character some great virtue which balanced his vices and counteracted their effects.  However, this young giddy-pate had no talent for government except that of making himself feared, and, at the same time, passed for