28 



CONQUEST OF BENGAL. 



him on the passage with every species of indignity. The 

 unhappy prince was dragged like a felon into" the palace 

 which he had so lately occupied in all the pomp of eastern 

 royalty. Jaffier showed himself somewhat affected at this 

 spectacle, not indeed without reason, having owed every 

 thing to Aliverdi Khan, grandfather to Surajah, of whom 

 also he had no serious ground to complain. He desired the 

 captive prince to retire, and assembled his counsellors to 

 deliberate on his fate. Some recommended clemency 

 others, among whom was his son Meeran, aged about 

 seventeen, urged the cruel but safe expedient of putting 

 him to instant death. The new nabob still hesitated, when 

 the youth entreated him to go to bed, and leave to him the 

 care of the royal captive. He consented, not without an 

 obvious presentiment of what would follow. Meeran lost 

 no time in sending a band of assassins to the apartment of 

 the prisoner, who met his death with weak and pusillani- 

 mous lamentations ; and the view of his remains, placed on 

 an elephant and carried through the streets, induced the 

 servile crowd to yield implicit submission to the new sove- 

 reign. Surajah Dowlah deserved his fate ; yet its circum- 

 stances, and the persons by whom it was inflicted, rendered 

 it an act of the basest treachery. 



Meanwhile the English made all due haste to commence 

 the important investigation into the contents of the Bengal 

 treasury. The result, indeed, as Meer Jaflier's minister 

 had intimated, issued in the most bitter disappointment 

 Of 22,000,000 rupees (2, 750,000/. ), the stipulated amount' 

 it was necessary to be content with the immediate payment 

 of one-half ; the nabob engaging to discharge the remainder 

 by instalments, in proportion as he had time to collect his 

 revenues. Even of this sum our countrymen were obliged 

 to accept a third part in jewels and other effects ; yet there 

 was paid down in cash 800,000/.,— the largest sum of prize- 

 money which they, or, it may be presumed, any other Eu- 

 ropean nation had ever received in India. 



Soon after, the government of Bengal was involved in 

 peculiar difficulties. The distracted state of the province 

 excited the hopes of the native princes, who expected that 

 it would fall an easy prey. The eldest son of the Mo<ml, 

 called the shazada, obtained from his father the investiture 

 as Subahdar of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, and proceeded 



