of Chandernagore.  This is the Nawab’s wish.’  I reply I will do nothing of the kind, that I and all those with me are free, that if I am forced to leave Cossimbazar I will surrender the Factory to the Nawab, and to no one else.  Mr. Watts, turning round to the Diwans, says excitedly, that it is impossible to do anything with me, and repeats to them word for word all that has passed between us.

“From that moment I saw clearly that the air of the Court was not healthy for us.  It was, however, necessary to put a good face on matters.  The Arzbegi and some others, taking me aside, begged me to consider what I was doing in refusing Mr. Watts’s propositions, and said that as the Nawab was determined to have a good understanding with the English, he would force me to accept them.  They then asked what I intended to do.  I said I intended to stay at Cossimbazar and to oppose, to the utmost of my power, the ambitious designs of the English.  ’Well, well, what can you do?’ they replied.  ’You are about a hundred Europeans; the Nawab has no need of you; you will certainly be forced to leave this place.  It would be much better to accept the terms offered you by Mr. Watts.’  The same persons who had begged me to do this then took Mr. Watts aside.  I do not know what they said to each other, but a quarter of an hour after they went into the hall where the Nawab was.

“I was in the utmost impatience to know the result of all these parleyings, so much the more as from some words that had escaped them I had reason to think they intended to arrest me.

“Fire or six minutes after Mr. Watts had gone to the Nawab, the Arzbegi, accompanied by some officers and the agents of the Seths and the English, came and told me aloud, in the presence of some fifty persons of rank, that the Nawab ordered me to submit myself entirely to what Mr. Watts demanded.  I told him I would not, and that it was impossible for the Nawab to have given such an order.  I demanded to be presented to him.  ‘The Nawab,’ they said, ‘does not wish to see you.’  I replied, ’It was he who summoned me; I will not go away till I have seen him.’  The Arzbegi saw I had no intention of giving way, and that I was well supported, for at this very moment word was brought of the arrival of our grenadiers, who had been ordered to come and meet me.  Disappointed at not seeing me appear, they had advanced to the very gates of the palace.  The Arzbegi, not knowing what would be the result of this affair, and wishing to get out of the scrape and to throw the burden of it on to the Seths’ agent, said to him, ’Do you speak, then; this affair concerns you more than us.’  The Seths’ agent wished to speak, but I did not give him time.  I said I would not listen to him, that I did not recognize him as having any authority, and that I had no business at all with him.  Thereupon the Arzbegi went back to the Nawab and told