“Two or three hours will be enough for me.  If we start soon we shall reach Murshidabad before dawn, and with little risk.  I’m to come back and report, sir?”

“Of course.  No doubt you will meet us on the way.”

On reaching Daudpur Desmond selected twenty Sepoys who knew the country and ordered them to be ready to start with him at midnight.  Bulger and Mr. Toley he had already informed of his mission, and he found them more than eager to share in it.  Just after midnight the little party set out.  A march of some four hours brought them to the outskirts of Murshidabad.  Desmond called a halt, encamped for the remainder of the night in a grove of palmyras, and at dawn sent forward one of the Sepoys, disguised as a ryot, to make inquiries as to what was happening in the town.

It was near midday when the man returned.  He reported that the Nawab had gone to his palace, while the chiefs who had accompanied or followed him from the field of battle had shown their recognition that his cause was lost by deserting him and going to their own houses.  He had heard nothing of the French.  The Nawab, in order to ingratiate himself with the people, had thrown open his treasury, from which all and sundry were carrying off what they pleased.  The city was in such a disturbed state that it would be exceedingly unsafe for any stranger to enter.

Desmond decided to remain where he was until nightfall, and then to skirt the city and move northwards in the hope of learning something definite of the movements of the French.  Meanwhile he sent the man back to learn if anything happened during the day.

In the evening the man returned again.  This time he reported that Mir Jafar had arrived with a large force and taken possession of the Nawab’s palace of Mansurganj.  Immediately after the traitor’s arrival Sirajuddaula had collected all the gold and jewels on which he could lay hands and fled with his women.  Suspecting that the luckless Nawab was making for Rajmahal in the hope of meeting Law there, Desmond made up his mind to follow.  He struck his camp, marched all night, and soon after daybreak reached a village near the river some miles south of Rajmahal.

He was surprised to find the village deserted.  But passing a small house, he heard cries of distress, and going in he found the place full of smoke from some straw that had been kindled, and a man tied by his thumbs to a staple in the wall.  He recognized the man in a moment.  It was Coja Solomon, Mr. Merriman’s rascally agent of Cossimbazar.  He was half dead with pain and fright.  Desmond cut him loose and hurried him out of the stifling room into the open, where Bulger revived him with copious douses of water until he was sufficiently recovered to explain his unhappy plight.