India is now an ocean, so to speak—one would pick up as many gems as often he would dive into it. What gain will there be if I simply count the waves from the shore? Well, I used to sell cloth measuring it out with the yard, but now India is afraid of me; I am the absolute master of Bengal. Am I really so? Who is the real master? The English merchants. Mir Kasim is their slave; I am Mir Kasim's slave—I am, therefore, a slave of the real master's slave! Very exalted position after all! But why should I not be the master of Bengal? Who can. stand before my guns? The English! O, if I could only meet them! But I shall never be the master unless the English are driven out of the country. I want to be the master of Bengal—I don't care for Mir Kasim in the least—I shall drag him down from the throne whenever I will like it. He is merely the step to my rising up to that exalted position. I have got up on the roof and can now throw down the ladder if I like, but the cursed English is the thorn on my way. They want to win over me and I want to gain over them. They will not come over to my side and so I shall drive them away. For the present let Mir Kasim be on the throne;
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