held by his master was assured to him, and a reward of a lac of rupees (ten or twelve thousand, pounds) secured to him, he would for that consideration deliver the Prince, the eldest son of the Mogul, alive into the hands of the Nabob; or if that could not be effected, he engaged to murder him for the same reward.  But as the assassin could not rely on the Nabob and his son for his reward for this meritorious action, and thought better of English honor and fidelity in such delicate cases, he required that Major Calliaud should set his seal to the agreement.  This proposition was made to an English commander:  what discourse happened upon it is uncertain.  Mr. Hastings is stated by some evidence to have acted as interpreter in this memorable congress.  But Major Calliaud agreed to it without any difficulty.  Accordingly, an instrument was drawn, an indenture tripartite prepared by the Persian secretary, securing to the party the reward of this infamous, perfidious, murderous act.  First, the Nabob put his own seal to the murder.  The Nabob’s son, Meeran, affixed his seal.  A third seal, the most important of all, was yet wanting.  A pause ensued:  Major Calliaud’s seal was not at hand; but Mr. Lushington was sent near half a mile to bring it.  It was brought at length; and the instrument of blood and treachery was completely executed.  Three seals were set to it.

This business of the three seals, by some means not quite fully explained, but (as suspected by the parties) by means of the information of Mr. Holwell, who soon after came home, was conveyed to the ears of the Court of Directors.  The Court of Directors wrote out, under date of the 7th of October, 1761, within a little more than a year after this extraordinary transaction, to this effect:—­that, in conjunction with the Nabob, Major Calliaud had signed a paper offering a reward of a lac of rupees, or some such sum, to several black persons, for the assassination of the Shahzada, or Prince heir-apparent,—­which paper was offered to the then Chief of Patna to sign, but which he refused on account of the infamy of the measure.  As it appeared in the same light to them, the Directors, they ordered a strict inquiry into it.  The India Company, who here did their duty with apparent manliness and vigor, were resolved, however, to do it with gentleness, and to proceed in a manner that could not produce any serious mischief to the parties charged; for they directed the commission of inquiry to the very clan and set of people who, from a participation in their common offences, stood in awe of one another,—­in effect, to the parties in the transaction.  Without a prosecutor, without an impartial director of the inquiry, they left it substantially to those persons to try one another for their common acts.