One day, however, he heard no more firing.  In the afternoon Mr. Toley came to his bunk, bringing with him Mr. Merriman himself.  The merchant had his head bound up, and wore his left arm in a sling.  He was pale, haggard, the shadow of his former self.

“What has happened, sir?” cried Desmond the instant he saw him.  “Are the ladies safe?”

“God pity us, Desmond!  I shall never see them again.  My poor Dora! my sweet Phyllis!  They are lost!  All is lost!  The Nawab has taken the fort.  We are beaten, shamed, ruined!”

“How did it happen?  I heard the firing.  Tell me; it can not be so bad as that.  Sure something can be done!”

“Nothing, nothing; we did all we could.  ’Twas little; would that Drake had heeded our advice!  But I am rejoiced to see you on the road to recovery, dear boy; ’twould have been another nail in my coffin to know that you had lost your life in doing a service for me.  I thank God for that, from the bottom of my heart.”

He pressed Desmond’s hand affectionately.

“But tell me, sir; I want to know what has happened.  How came you to be wounded?  Sure I am strong enough to hear now; it will do me no harm.”

“It cuts me to the heart, Desmond, but you shall know.  I was absent when you were carried to my house—­searching for my dear ones.  But Dr. Gray tended you; alas! the good man is now a prisoner.  I returned three days after, driven back from up the river by the advance of the Nawab’s army.  I was worn out, distraught; not a trace had I found of my dear wife; she had vanished; nor of my daughter; nor even of my peons; all had gone.

“And there was trouble enough in Calcutta for me and for all.  ’Twas the very day I returned that the news came of Sirajuddaula’s approach.  And a letter from his chief spy was intercepted, addressed to Omichand, bidding him escape while there was yet time and join the Subah.  That seemed to Mr. Drake clear proof that Omichand was in league with our enemies, and he had him arrested and thrown into the fort prison.  But Mr. Drake never acts till ’tis too late.  He gave orders next to arrest Krishna Das.  The man barricaded himself in his house and beat our peons off, till Lieutenant Blagg and thirty Europeans drove in his gates.  They found a vast quantity of arms collected there.  They stormed Omichand’s house also, where three hundred armed domestics made a stout fight against ’em.  When our men got in—­’tis a horrid story—­the head jamadar with his own hands stabbed all his master’s women and children, to prevent em falling into our hands, and then set fire to the place.

“Our men had already been driven out of Tanna fort by Manik Chand, who had come up with two thousand men and a couple of field pieces.  Then came up Mir Jafar, the Nawab’s bakshi {commander in chief}, and began firing from the Chitpur gate.  We got all our women into the fort; the poor creatures left all they had but their clothes and their bedding.  You may guess the confusion.  The natives were flocking out of the town; most of our servants fled with them; all our cooks were gone, so that though we had a great stock of food we were like to starve in the midst of plenty.