Scared by this defeat, the Nawab was ready to conclude with the Company the treaty which long negotiations had failed to effect.  By this treaty the trading privileges granted to the Company by the emperor of Delhi were confirmed; the Nawab agreed to pay full compensation for the losses sustained by the Company and its servants; and the right to fortify Calcutta was conceded.  The longstanding grievances of the Company were thus, on paper, redressed.

A day or two after the battle a ship arrived with the news that war had been declared in Europe between England and France.  Efforts to maintain neutrality between the English and French in Bengal having failed, Clive wished the Nawab to join him in an attack on the French settlements in Bengal.  This the Nawab refused to do, though he wrote, promising that he would hold as enemies all who were enemies of Clive—­a promise that bore bitter fruit before many months had passed.

The French were keen rivals of the Company in the trade of India, and constantly took advantage of native troubles to score a point in the game.  Clive had come to Bengal with the full intention of making the Company, whose servant he was, supreme; and having secured the treaty with Sirajuddaula he resolved to turn his arms against the French.  They were suspected of helping the Nawab in his expedition against Calcutta:  it was known that the Nawab, treating his engagements with reckless levity and faithlessness, was trying to persuade Bussy, the French commander in the Dekkan, to help him to expel the British from Bengal.  There was excuse enough for an attack on Chandernagore.

But before Clive could open hostilities, he was required, by an old arrangement with the Mogul, to obtain permission from the Nawab.  This permission was at length got from him by Omichand.  The sack of Calcutta by the Nawab had caused Omichand great loss, and, hoping in part to retrieve it, he made his peace with Clive and the Council, and was then selected to accompany Mr. Watts when he went as British representative to Murshidabad.  The wily Sikh, working always for his own ends, contrived to make the unstable young despot believe that the French were tricking him, and in a fit of passion he sealed a letter allowing Admiral Watson to make war upon them.  He repented of it immediately, but the letter was gone.

On the day after it reached the admiral, March twelfth, 1757, Clive sent a summons to Monsieur Renault, the governor of Chandernagore, to surrender the fort.  No reply was received that day, and Clive resolved, failing a satisfactory answer within twenty-four hours, to read King George’s declaration of war and attack the French.

Desmond was breakfasting among a number of his fellow officers next morning when up came Hossain, the serang who had accompanied him on his eventful journeys up and down the Hugli.  Lately he had been employed, on Desmond’s recommendation, in bringing supplies up the river for the troops.  The man salaamed and said that he wished to say a few words privately to the sahib.  Desmond rose, and went apart with him.