oath and solved his dilemma by ordering the head of Chunda Sahib to be struck off.
Orme says that the black deed was done by a Pathan who served the Tanjore general in the capacity of executioner. The Nabob, now an old man (1752), was stretched upon the ground, unable through sickness to rise. When he saw the Pathan enter he guessed what his mission was. Nothing else, indeed, could be expected from his enemies. He lifted his hand as though to stop the assassin, and begged that he might have a few words with Monackgee, saying that he had something of great importance to communicate. The 'man of blood' paid no attention to the request. He stabbed the prince to the heart and cut off his head.
Monackgee sent the head to the Nabob at Trichinopoly, who thus saw his rival for the first time. The head was tied to the neck of a camel and carried five times round the walls of the city that all might see how the enemy had fallen. The horrible procession, accompanied by thousands of excited people, passed the palace where, as a young man, Chunda Sahib, decked in bright array, had won the heart of the widowed queen ; and went through the gateway which he had once entered to take possession of the town. On all sides the lifeless features, ghastly in death, were greeted with insulting epithets.
Although his methods of warfare did not differ from those of the period when treachery and cruelty marked every campaign, he stood out above the princes of the day in courage and military qualities. Orme says that he was a brave, benevolent, humane and generous man as princes went in Hindustan ; and he pays a tribute to his ability as a leader, venturing to suggest that if the French had listened to the counsels of the Nabob and placed their army under his direction, their power might not have
