His share of the sale price of the Tremukji, together with the Gheria prize money, amounted to more than a thousand pounds, and this had been invested for him by his friend.

“For myself,” added Merriman, “I shall remain.  My wounds are not severe; I am accustomed to the climate; and though India is now odious to me, I shall not leave Indian soil until I find traces of my dear wife and daughter.  God grant that by the time you return I shall have some news of them.”

Desmond would have liked to remain with the merchant, but he knew that in his weakness he could do him no service, and he acquiesced in the arrangement.

That same evening the fugitives received news that made their blood run cold.  Two Englishmen, Messrs. Cooke and Lushington, who had remained staunchly by Mr. Holwell’s side, came from the shore in a small boat and boarded the Dodalay.  Their appearance struck every one with amazement and horror.  Mr. Cooke was a merchant, aged thirty-one; Mr. Lushington a writer in the Company’s service, his age eighteen; but the events of one night had altered them almost beyond recognition.  They said that when the order had been given to confine them in the barracks, the prisoners had all expected to pass the night in comparative comfort.  What was their amazement when they were escorted to the Black Hole, a little chamber no more than eighteen feet square, which was only used as a rule for the confinement of one or two unruly prisoners.  In vain they protested; their brutal guards forced them, a hundred and forty-six in number, into the narrow space, and locked the door upon them.  It was one of the hottest nights of the year; there was but one small opening in the wall, and before long the want of air and the intense heat drove the poor people to fury.  They trampled each other down in their mad attempts to get near the opening for air and the water which one of their jailers, less brutal than the rest, handed in to them.

The horror of the scenes that passed in that small room baffles description.  Men and women in the agonies of thirst and suffocation fought like tigers.  Many prayed their guards to shoot them and end their sufferings, only to meet with jeers and laughter.  Some of the native officers took pity on them and would have opened the door, but none durst move without the Nawab’s permission, or brave his fury if they roused him from his sleep.  From seven in the evening till six in the morning the agony continued, and when at length the order came for their release, only twenty-three of the hundred and forty-six tottered forth, the ghastliest wrecks of human beings.

Mr. Holwell and three others were then conveyed as prisoners in a bullock cart to Omichand’s garden, and thence to Murshidabad; the rest were bidden to go where they pleased.

The news was kept from Desmond.  It was not till weeks after that he heard of the terrible tragedy.  Then, with the horror and pity he felt, there was mingled a fear that Bulger had been among those who perished.  The seaman, he knew, had taken a stout part in the defense of the fort; Mr. Merriman had not mentioned him as being among the prisoners; it was possible that he had escaped; but the thought that the brave fellow had perhaps died in that awful hole made Desmond sick at heart.