if we were left alone the revolution could have been effected by the junction of the English with the forces which would have been produced against Siraj-ud-daula by the crowd of enemies whom he had, and amongst whom were to be counted the most respectable persons in the three provinces.[84] This statement demands an explanation.  I have already spoken of the house of Jagat Seth, or rather of its chiefs, who are named Seth Mahtab Rai and Seth Sarup Chand, bankers of the Mogul, the richest and most powerful merchants who have ever lived.  They are, I can say, the movers of the revolution.  Without them the English would never have carried out what they have.  I have already said they were not pleased with Siraj-ud-daula, who did not show them the same respect as the old Nawab Aliverdi Khan had done; but the arrival of the English forces, the capture of the Moorish forts, and the fright of the Nawab before Calcutta, had made a change which was apparently in their favour.  The Nawab began to perceive that the bankers were necessary to him.  The English would have no one except them as mediators, and so they had become, as it were, responsible for the behaviour of both the Nawab and the English.  Accordingly after the Peace there was nothing but kindness and politeness from the Nawab towards them, and he consulted them in everything.  At the bottom this behaviour of his was sheer trickery.  The Seths were persuaded that the Nawab who hated the English must also dislike the persons whom the English employed.  Profiting by the hatred which the Nawab had drawn on himself by his violence, and distributing money judiciously, they had long since gained over those who were nearest to the Nawab, whose imprudence always enabled them to know what he had in his heart.  From what came to the knowledge of the Seths it was easy to guess what he intended, and this made them tremble, for it was nothing less than their destruction, which could be averted only by his own.  The cause of the English had become that of the Seths; their interests were identical.  Can one be surprised to see them acting in concert?  Further, when one remembers that it was this same house of bankers that overthrew Sarfaraz Khan[85] to enthrone Aliverdi Khan, and who, during the reign of the latter, had the management of all important business, one must confess that it ought not to be difficult for persons of so much influence to execute a project in which, the English were taking a share."[86]

Law could not persuade Renault to act, and without his doing so the game was nearly hopeless.  Still, he worked at forming a French party in the Court.  By means of Coja Wajid, an Armenian merchant of Hugli, whose property had been plundered by the English, he obtained an interview with the Nawab, and persuaded him to send the 2000 soldiers who were with Renault at the beginning of the siege.  More would have been despatched but for the apparent certainty that the treaty of neutrality would be signed.  In fact, Renault was so worried that, on the complaint of Watson and Clive that Law was exciting the Nawab against the English, he wrote Law a letter which caused the latter to ask to be recalled from Cossimbazar, and it was only at Renault’s earnest request that he consented to remain at his post.  Law continued forming his party.