Clive's
fortunes was mounting towards its zenith; the fiery planet of Dupleix
had begun to fail and pale and fade. The policy which Dupleix had
adopted, that policy of intrigue with the native princes of India, the
English East India Company had been forced in self-defence and very
reluctantly to adopt. Having adopted it, the men of the English East
India Company proved themselves to be better players at the game than
Dupleix. Warren Hastings, driving his pen at a desk in Calcutta, or
looking after silk-spinning in the factory of Kazim Bazar near
Murshidabad on the Ganges, was able to watch almost from its beginning
the great political drama in which he was destined in his time to play
so great a part, and which was to end in giving England a great Asiatic
empire. When Suraj ud Dowlah declared war against the English his
first move was to fall upon the Kazim Bazar settlement. Warren
Hastings and the other English residents were made prisoners and sent
to Murshidabad, where, through the intervention of the Dutch Company,
they were humanely treated. Then came the madman's march on Calcutta,
the horror of the Black Hole, and the flight of the Governor and the
Company's servants to the little fort at Falta in the Hughli below
Calcutta. Communications were entered upon between Governor Drake in
Falta Island and Hastings at Murshidabad with a view to coming to terms
with Suraj ud Dowlah. Warren Hastings was already, however, developing
that genius for Oriental diplomacy which afterwards so characterized
his career. He was made aware of the treason that was hatching against
Suraj ud Dowlah in his own court and among his own friends, and he was
quite ready to play his part and find his account in that treason.
Treason is a risky game for a political prisoner at a court like that
of Suraj ud Dowlah. Warren Hastings was quick-witted enough to see
that the sooner he got away from that {250} court the better for
himself. He succeeded accordingly in making his escape and joining the
fugitives at Falta. Here two things of moment happened to him. He met
the woman who was to be his first wife, and he met the great man who
was to give him his first chance for fame. Among the refugees from
Calcutta was the widow of a Captain Campbell. Warren Hastings fell in
love with her, and afterwards in an hour of greater security he married
her. He seem to have been very fond of her, to have been very happy
with her, but she died ver