Three Frenchmen in Bengal Part 7

Law hurried back to his Factory, and by the evening of the 15th of April he was ready to depart. The same day the Nawab wrote to Clive:--

"Mr. Law I have put out of the city, and have wrote expressly to my Naib[96] at Patna to turn him and his attendants out of the bounds of his Subaship, and that he shall not suffer them to stay in any place within it."[97]

At the end of April the Nawab wrote to Abdulla Khan, the Afghan general at Delhi, that he had supplied Law with Rs.10,000. Clive was quickly informed of this.

On the morning of the 16th the French marched through Murshidabad with colours flying and drums beating, prepared against any surprise in the narrow streets of the city. Mr. Watts wrote to Clive:--

"They had 100 Europeans, 60 Tellingees, 30 _hackerys_"

(i.e. bullock-waggons) "and 4 elephants with them."[98]

Close on their track followed two spies, sent by Mr. Watts to try and seduce the French soldiers and sepoys. Law left a M. Bugros behind in charge of the French Factory.

Shortly after leaving Cossimbazar, Law was reinforced by a party of 45 men, mostly sailors of the _Saint Contest_, who had managed to escape from the English. On the 2nd of May the French arrived at Bhagulpur, the Nawab writing to them to move on whenever he heard they were halting, and not to go so fast when he heard they were on the march.

"To satisfy him we should have been always in motion and yet not advancing; this did not suit us. It was of the utmost importance to arrive at some place where I could find means for the equipment of my troop. We were dest.i.tute of everything."

These contradictory orders, and even letters of recall, reached Law on his march, but though he sent back M. Sinfray with letters to M.

Bugros and Coja Wajid--which the latter afterwards made over to Clive--he continued his march to Patna, where he arrived on the 3rd of June, and was well received by Raja Ramnarain, and where he was within four or five days' march or sail from Sooty, the mouth of the Murshidabad or Cossimbazar river, and therefore in a position to join the Nawab whenever it might be necessary.

In the mean time fate had avenged Law on one of his lesser enemies.

This was that Ranjit Rai, who had insulted him during his interview with the Seths. The latter had pursued their old policy of inciting the English to make extravagant demands which they at the same time urged the Nawab to refuse. To justify one such demand, the English produced a letter in the handwriting of Ranjit Rai, purporting to be written at the dictation of the Seths under instructions from the Nawab. The latter denied the instructions, and the Seths promptly a.s.serted that the whole letter was a forgery of their agent's.

"The notorious Ranjit Rai was driven in disgrace from the _Durbar_, banished, and a.s.sa.s.sinated on the road. It was said he had received 2 lakhs from the English to apply his masters' seal unknown to them. I can hardly believe this.

This agent was attached to the English only because he knew the Seths were devoted to them."

This incident warned the Seths to be more cautious, but still the plot against the Nawab was well known in the country. Renault, who had been at this time a prisoner in Calcutta, says:--

"Never was a conspiracy conducted as publicly and with such indiscretion as this was, both by the Moors and the English. Nothing else was talked about in all the English settlements, and whilst every place echoed with the noise of it, the Nawab, who had a number of spies, was ignorant of everything. Nothing can prove more clearly the general hatred which was felt towards him."[99]

M. Sinfray had returned to Murshidabad, but could not obtain an interview with the Nawab till the 8th of June, when he found him still absolutely tranquil; and even on the 10th the Nawab wrote to Law to have no fears on his account; but this letter did not reach Law till the 19th.

"I complained of the delay in the strongest terms to Ramnarain, who received the packets from the Nawab, but it was quite useless. The Nawab was betrayed by those whom he thought most attached to him. The Faujdar of Rajmehal used to stop all his messengers and detain them as long as he thought fit."

This officer was a brother of Mir Jafar.[100] The Seths and the English had long found the chief difficulty in their way to be the choice of a man of sufficient distinction to replace Siraj-ud-daula on the throne. At this moment the Nawab himself gave them as a leader Mir Jafar Ali Khan, who had married the sister of Aliverdi Khan, and was therefore a relative of his. Mir Jafar was _Bukshi_, or Paymaster and Generalissimo of the Army, and his influence had greatly contributed to Siraj-ud-daula's peaceful accession. He was a man of good reputation, and a brave and skilful soldier. It was such a person as this that the Nawab, after a long course of petty insults, saw fit to abuse in the vilest terms in full _Durbar_ and to dismiss summarily from his post. He now listened to the proposals of the Seths, and towards the end of April terms were settled between him and the English.[101] The actual conclusion of the Treaty took place early in June, and on the 13th of that month Mr. Watts and the other English gentlemen at Cossimbazar escaped under the pretence of a hunting expedition and joined Clive in safety. As soon as he heard of this, the Nawab knew that war was inevitable, and it had come at a moment when he had disbanded half his army unpaid, and the other half was grumbling for arrears. Not only had he insulted Mir Jafar, but he had also managed to quarrel with Rai Durlabh. Instead of trying to postpone the conflict until he had crushed these two dangerous enemies, he begged them to be reconciled to him, and put himself in their hands. Letter after letter was sent to recall Law, but even the first, despatched on the 13th, did not reach Law till the 22nd, owing to the treachery of the Faujdar of Rajmehal. Law's letter entreating the Nawab to await his arrival certainly never reached him, and though Law had started at the first rumour of danger, before getting the Nawab's letter, he did not reach Rajmehal till the 1st of July. The Nawab had been captured in the neighbourhood a few hours before the arrival of his advance-guard. Gholam Husain Khan says that Law would have been in time had the Nawab's last remittance been a bill of exchange and not an order on the Treasury, for--

"as slowness of motion seems to be of etiquette with the people of Hindustan, the disbursing of the money took up so much time that when M. Law was come down as far Rajmehal, he found that all was over."

Law, who was nothing if not philosophical, remarked on this disappointment:--

"In saving Siraj-ud-daula we should have scored a great success, but possibly he would have been saved for a short time only. He would have found enemies and traitors wherever he might have presented himself in the countries supposed to be subject to him. No one would have acknowledged him. Forced by Mir Jafar and the English to flee to a foreign country, he would have been a burden to us rather than an a.s.sistance.

"In India no one knows what it is to stand by an unfortunate man. The first idea which suggests itself is to plunder him of the little[102] which remains to him. Besides, a character like that of Siraj-ud-daula could nowhere find a real friend."

Siraj-ud-daula, defeated by Clive at Pla.s.sey on the 23rd of June, was, says Scrafton,--

"himself one of the first that carried the news of his defeat to the capital, which he reached that night."

His wisest councillors urged him to surrender to Clive, but he thought this advice treacherous, and determined to flee towards Rajmehal. When nearly there he was recognized by a Fakir,[103] whose ears he had, some time before, ordered to be cut off. The Fakir informed the Faujdar, who seized him and sent him to Murshidabad, where Miran, Mir Jafar's son, put him to death on the 4th of July.

It was necessary for Law to withdraw as quickly as possible if he was to preserve his liberty. Clive and Mir Jafar wrote urgent letters to Ramnarain at Patna to stop him, but Ramnarain was no lover of Mir Jafar, and he was not yet acquainted with Clive, so he allowed him to pa.s.s. Law says:--

"On the 16th of July we arrived at Dinapur, eight miles above Patna, where I soon saw we had no time to lose.

The Raja of Patna himself would not have troubled us much.

By means of our boats we could have avoided him as we pleased, for though our fleet was in a very bad condition, still it could have held its own against the naval forces of Bengal, i.e. the Indian forces, but the English were advancing, commanded by Major Coote. As the English call themselves the masters of the aquatic element, it became us the less to wait for them, when we knew they had stronger and more numerous boats than we had. Possibly we could have outsailed them, but we did not wish to give them the pleasure of seeing us flee. On the 18th instant an order from the Raja instructed me in the name of Mir Jafar to halt--no doubt to wait for the English--whilst another on his own part advised me to hurry off. Some small detachments of hors.e.m.e.n appeared along the bank, apparently to hinder us from getting provisions or to lay violent hands on the boatmen. On this we set sail, resolved to quit all the dependencies of Bengal. In spite of ourselves we had to halt at Chupra, twenty-two miles higher up, because our rowers refused to go further: prayers and threats all seemed useless. I thought the English had found some means to gain them over. The boats did not belong to us, but we should have had little scruple in seizing them had our Europeans known how to manage them. Unfortunately, they knew nothing about it. The boats in Bengal have no keel, and consequently do not carry sail well. So we lost two days in discussion with the boatmen, but at last, by doubling their pay, terms were made, and five days after, on the 25th of July, we arrived at Ghazipur, the first place of importance in the provinces of Suja-ud-daula, Viceroy of the Subahs of Oudh, Lucknow, and Allahabad."

Before Law left Rajmehal on his return to Patna, the Faujdar tried to stop him on pretence that Mir Jafar wished to reconcile him to the English. Law thought this unlikely, yet knowing the native proclivity for underhand intrigue, he wrote him a letter, but the answer which he received at Chupra was merely an order to surrender. Law says:--

"I had an idea that he might write to me in a quite different style, _unknown to the English_. I knew the new Nawab, whom I met at the time I was soliciting reinforcements to raise the siege of Chandernagore. He had not then taken up the idea of making himself Nawab. He appeared to me a very intelligent man, and much inclined to do us service, pitying us greatly for having to work with a man so cowardly and undecided as Siraj-ud-daula."

Law thought his communication--

"was well calculated to excite in his mind sentiments favourable to us, but if it did, Mir Jafar let none of them appear. The Revolution was too recent and the influence of the English too great for him to risk the least correspondence with us."

From Clive, on the other hand, he received a letter,--

"such as became a general who, though an enemy, interested himself in our fate out of humanity, knowing by his own experience into what perils and fatigues we were going to throw ourselves when we left the European Settlements."

This letter, dated Murshidabad, July 9th, was as follows:--

"As the country people are now all become your enemies, and orders are gone everywhere to intercept your pa.s.sage, and I myself have sent parties in quest of you, and orders are gone to Ramnarain, the Naib of Patna, to seize you if you pursue that road, you must be sensible if you fall into their hands you cannot expect to find them a generous enemy. If, therefore, you have any regard for the men under your command, I would recommend you to treat with us, from whom you may expect the most favourable terms in my power to grant."[104]

Law does not say much about the hardships of his flight; but Eyre Coote, who commanded the detachment which followed him, had the utmost difficulty in persuading his men to advance, and wrote to Clive that he had never known soldiers exposed to greater hardships.

At Patna Eyre Coote seized the French Factory, where the Chief, M.

de la Bretesche, was lying ill. The military and other Company's servants had gone on with Law, leaving in charge a person variously called M. Innocent and Innocent Jesus. He was not a Frenchman, but nevertheless he was sent down to Calcutta. From Patna Eyre Coote got as far as Chupra, only to find Law safe beyond the frontier at Ghazipur, and nothing left for him to do but to return.

From now on to January, 1761, Law was out of the reach of the English, living precariously on supplies sent from Bussy in the south, from his wife at Chinsurah, and from a secret store which M.

de la Bretesche had established at Patna unknown to the English, and upon loans raised from wealthy natives, such as the Raja of Bettiah. He believed all along that the French would soon make an effort to invade Bengal, where there was a large native party in their favour, and where he could a.s.sist them by creating a diversion in the north. I shall touch on his adventures very briefly.

His first halt was at Benares, which he reached on the 2nd of August, and where the Raja Bulwant Singh tried to wheedle and frighten him into surrendering his guns. He escaped out of his hands by sheer bluff, and went on to Chunargarh, where he received letters from Suja-ud-daula, Nawab of Oudh, a friend of Siraj-ud-daula's, whom he hoped to persuade into invading Bengal. On the 3rd of September he reached Allahabad, and here left his troop under the command of M. le Comte de Carryon, whilst he went on to Lucknow, the capital of Oudh.

It is only at this moment that Law bethinks him of describing his troop. It consisted of 175 Europeans and 100 sepoys drilled in European fashion. The officers were D'Hurvilliers, le Comte de Carryon (who had brought a detachment from Dacca before Law left Cossimbazar), Ensign Brayer (who had commanded the military at Patna), Ensign Jobard (who had escaped from Chandernagore), and Ensign Martin de la Case. He also entertained as officers MM.

Debelleme (Captain of a French East Indiaman), Boissemont, and La Ville Martere, Company's servants (these three had all escaped from Chandernagore), Dangereux and Dubois (Company's servants stationed at Cossimbazar), Beinges (a Company's servant stationed at Patna), and two private gentlemen, Kerdizien and Gourbin. Besides these, MM.

Anquetil du Perron,[105] La Rue, Desjoux, Villequain, Desbrosses, and Calve, served as volunteers. His chaplain was the Reverend Father Onofre, and he had two surgeons, Dubois and Le Page. The last two were probably the surgeons of Cossimbazar and Patna. He had also with him M. Lenoir, second of Patna, whose acquaintance with the language and the people was invaluable. Law seems to have been always able to recruit his sepoys, but he had no great opinion of them.

"In fact it may be said that the sepoy is a singular animal, especially until he has had time to acquire a proper sense of discipline. As soon as he has received his red jacket and his gun he thinks he is a different man. He looks upon himself as a European, and having a very high estimation of this qualification, he thinks he has the right to despise all the country people, whom he treats as Kaffirs and wretched negroes, though he is often just as black as they are. In every place I have been I have remarked that the inhabitants have less fear of the European soldier, who in his disorderly behaviour sometimes shows an amount of generosity which they would expect in vain from a sepoy."

Law has left the following description of Lucknow:--

"Lucknow, capital of the Subah[106] so called, is 160 miles north of Allahabad, on the other side of the Ganges, and about 44 miles from that river. The country is beautiful and of great fertility, but what can one expect from the best land without cultivation? It was particularly the fate of this province and of a large portion of Oudh to have been exhausted by the wars of Mansur Ali Khan.[107] That prince at his death left the Treasury empty and a quant.i.ty of debts. Suja-ud-daula, his successor, thought he could satisfy his creditors, all of them officers of the army, by giving them orders upon several of the large estates. This method was too slow for these military gentlemen. In a short time every officer had become the Farmer,[108] or rather the Tyrant, of the villages abandoned to him. Forcible executions quickly reimbursed him to an extent greater than his claim, but the country suffered. The ill-used inhabitants left it, and the land remained uncultivated. This might have been repaired. The good order established by Suja-ud-daula commenced to bring the inhabitants back when an evil, against which human prudence was powerless, achieved their total destruction. For two whole years clouds of locusts traversed the country regularly with the Monsoon,[109]

and reduced the hopes of the cultivator to nothing. When two days from Lucknow, we ourselves saw the ravages committed by this insect. It was perfect weather; suddenly we saw the sky overcast; a darkness like that of a total eclipse spread itself abroad and lasted a good hour. In less than no time we saw the trees under which we were camped stripped of their leaves. The next day as we journeyed we saw that the same devastation had been produced for a distance of ten miles. The gra.s.s on the roads and every green thing in the fields were eaten away down to the roots. This recurrent plague had driven away the inhabitants, even those who had survived the exactions of the military. Towns and villages were abandoned; the small number of people who remained--I am speaking without exaggeration--only served to augment the horror of this solitude. We saw nothing but spectres.

"The state of the people of Lucknow city, the residence of the Nawab, was hardly better. The evil was perhaps less evident owing to the variety of objects, but from what one could see from time to time nature did not suffer less. The environs of the palace were covered with poor sick people lying in the middle of the roads, so that it was impossible for the Nawab to go out without causing his elephant to tread on the bodies of several of them, except when he had the patience to wait and have them cleared out of the way--an act which would not accord with Oriental ideas of grandeur. In spite of this there were few accidents. The animal used to guide its footsteps so as to show it was more friendly to human beings than men themselves were."

At Lucknow Suja-ud-daula greeted him with a sympathetic interest, which Law quaintly likens to that shown by Dido for Aeneas, but money was not forthcoming, and Law soon found that Suja-ud-daula was not on sufficiently good terms with the Mogul's[110] Vizir[111] at Delhi to risk an attack on Bengal. On the 18th of October he returned to Allahabad, with the intention of going to Delhi to see what he could do with the Vizir, but as it might have been dangerous to disclose his object, he pretended he was going to march south to Bussy in the Deccan, and obtained a pa.s.sport from the Maratha general, Holkar. This took some time, and it was not till March, 1758, that he started for Delhi. He reached Farukhabad without difficulty, and on the 21st entered the country of the Jats. On the evening of the 23rd a barber, who came into their camp, warned the French they would be attacked. The next day the Jats, to the number of 20,000, attacked them on the march. The fight lasted the whole day, and the French fired 6000 musket shots and 800 cannon. The cannon-b.a.l.l.s were made of clay moulded round a pebble, and were found sufficiently effective in the level country.

Soon after they arrived at Delhi, only to find the Marathas masters of the situation and in actual possession of the person of the Shahzada, or Crown Prince.[112] The Prince was friendly, gave Law money, and eagerly welcomed the idea of attacking Bengal, but he was himself practically a prisoner. The Vizir, too, could do nothing, and would give no money. The Marathas amused him with promises, and tried to trap him into fighting their battles. No one seemed to know anything about what had happened in Bengal. He spoke to several of the chief men about the English.

"I felt sure that, after the Revolution in Bengal, they would be the only subject of conversation in the capital. The Revolution had made much noise, but it was ascribed entirely to the Seths and to Rai Durlabh Ram. Clive's name was well known. He was, they said, a great captain whom the Seths had brought from very far at a great expense, to deliver Bengal from the tyranny of Siraj-ud-daula, as Salabat Jang had engaged M. Bussy to keep the Marathas in order. Many of the princ.i.p.al persons even asked me what country he came from. Others, mixing up all Europeans together, thought that I was a deputy from Clive. It was useless for me to say we were enemies, that it was the English who had done everything in Bengal, that it was they who governed and not Jafar Ali Khan, who was only Nawab in name. No one would believe me. In fact, how could one persuade people who had never seen a race of men different from their own, that a body of two or three thousand Europeans at the most was able to dictate the law in a country as large as Bengal?"