between the French and English on the Coromandel Coast, there was perfect peace among the factories of rival nations, French, Dutch, and English, in Bengal. Under the strong yet peaceful rule of Alí Vardi Khán Calcutta grew into a rich and populous town, and the Company's warehouses were loaded with silk and cotton stuffs, with saltpetre, lac, and spices, which the tall Indiamen lying near in the Húglí would ere long be carrying home.
The Súbahdár or Viceroy of Bengal was still in name a Lieutenant of the Great Mughal who held his court at Delhi. But the glory of the House of Bábar had begun to wane even in the lifetime of Aurangzeb. Within half a century since his death it had 'gone glimmermg in the dream of things that were.' Nothing remained of it save a dim twilight which seemed already dying into the dark. The Mughal Empire of Delhi, which at one time covered nearly the whole Indian Peninsula, had now dwindled, in all but name, into a group of districts surrounding the cities of Delhi, Agra, and Allahábád. Delhi itself was sacked in 1739 by the Persian conqueror. Nadír Sháh. In the name of the Delhi Emperor, Mughal, Pathán, and Persian adventurers founded dynasties for themselves in Oudh, Rohilkhand, Bengal, and the Deccan; while the daring Maráthás were wresting from his sway province after province in Southern, Western, and Central India, and the fiery Sikhs in the North-West were fighting against the Afghán Ahmad Sháh for the sovereignty of the Punjab. Despoiled alike by
