“‘How?’ said the Nawab, looking angrily at me instead of at Mr. Watts:  ‘who am I then?’ All the members of his Court cried out together that his orders would certainly be attended to.”

As Law expected, Chandernagore was attacked before the Admiral’s reply was received.  Law received the news on the 15th, and hurried to the Nawab.  Reinforcements were ordered and counter-ordered.  At midnight the Nawab’s eunuch came to inform Law that the English had been repulsed with loss, and on the morning of the 16th the Nawab’s troops were ordered to advance, but when the same day news came that the French had withdrawn into the Fort, every one cried out that the Fort must fall, and that it was mere folly to incense the English by sending down troops.  They were immediately recalled.  Then news arrived that the Fort was holding out, and Rai Durlabh Ram was ordered to advance.  Again there came a false report that the Fort had fallen.  Law knew Rai Durlabh was a coward, and his whole reliance was on the second in command, Mir Madan:—­

  “a capable officer, and one who would have attacked the
  enemy with pleasure.”

This Mir Madan is said to have been a Hindu convert to Muhammadanism.  Native poems still tell of the gallantry with which he commanded the Hindu soldiers of the Nawab.  He was one of the first to fall at Plassey, and though it cannot be said that his death caused the loss of the battle, it is certain that it put an end to all chance of the victory being contested.

Law was at his wits’ end.  It was no time to stick at trifles, and, that he might know the worst at once, he intercepted Mr. Watts’s letters.  From them he gathered that the English intended to march straight upon Murshidabad.  He set about fortifying the enclosure round the French Factory, and, as he had only 10 or 12 men, he induced the Nawab to send him a native officer with 100 musketeers.  He soon learned that the reported English advance was merely the pursuit of the fugitives from Chandernagore, who were mentioned in the last chapter.  By the end of March he had 60 Europeans:—­

  “of whom the half, in truth, were not fit to serve; but what
  did that matter?  The number was worth 120 to me outside
  the fort, since rumour always delights in exaggeration.”

Of the sepoys also, whom the English set free, some 30 found their way to Law, and so far was he now from being afraid of Mr. Watts, that it was the latter who had to ask the Nawab’s protection.

The vacillation which had marked the Nawab’s conduct previous to the fall of Chandernagore still continued.  He protected Law, but would not help him with money.