Page:Warren Hastings (Trotter).djvu/27

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A HARD BARGAIN
21

ghal invaders out of Behar, and quelled a formidable revolt in Bengal itself. The treasury in Fort William had been drained nearly of its last rupee, and Mír Jafar had so squandered his own resources, that his troops were in open mutiny for many months' arrears of pay. At Madras our countrymen had been involved for years in a costly incessant warfare either with their French rivals or with the neighbouring 'country powers.' Bombay also had its own quarrels, intrigues, and difficulties; and the Company at home were hard pressed to find ways and means for keeping up their settlements in the far East.

After a brief but futile show of resistance Mír Jafar retired peaceably from a post which he had done so little to adorn. Escorted down the river by a guard of English soldiers and Sepoys, the dethroned Nawáb was safely lodged with his family and followers in a pleasant suburb of Calcutta. His son-in-law, Mír Kásim Alí, was installed as his successor at Murshidábád. Twice therefore in about three years the Calcutta merchants had played the part of king-makers. And they drove a yet harder bargain with the new Nawáb than Clive and Drake had driven with Mír Jafar. In return for their good services, he bound himself to pay off Mír Jafar's debts to the Company, to endow them with the revenues of Bardwán, Midnapur, and Chittagong, and he contributed five lakhs of rupees towards the war in the Karnatic. Nor was he allowed to forget the private interests of his new patrons. Vansittart himself, not a very grasping