nger to enter.

Desmond decided to remain where he was until nightfall, and then to skirt
the city and move northwards in the hope of learning something definite
of the movements of the French. Meanwhile he sent the man back to learn
if anything happened during the day.

In the evening the man returned again. This time he reported that Mir
Jafar had arrived with a large force and taken possession of the Nawab's
palace of Mansurganj. Immediately after the traitor's arrival
Sirajuddaula had collected all the gold and jewels on which he could lay
hands and fled with his women. Suspecting that the luckless Nawab was
making for Rajmahal in the hope of meeting Law there, Desmond made up his
mind to follow. He struck his camp, marched all night, and soon after
daybreak reached a village near the river some miles south of Rajmahal.

He was surprised to find the village deserted. But passing a small house,
he heard cries of distress, and going in he found the place full of smoke
from some straw that had been kindled, and a man tied by his thumbs to a
staple in the wall. He recognized the man in a moment. It was Coja
Solomon, Mr. Merriman's rascally agent of Cossimbazar. He was half dead
with pain and fright. Desmond cut him loose and hurried him out of the
stifling room into the open, where Bulger revived him with copious douses
of water until he was sufficiently recovered to explain his unhappy
plight.

"God be praised!" exclaimed the Armenian fervently. "You were in time,
sir. I was seeking safety. The Faujdar of Murshidabad villainously
ill-used me. He owes me much, but there is no gratitude in him. I saw
that neither my life nor my goods were safe, so I packed up what
valuables I could and left with my servants, intending to go to Patna,
where I have a house. I had just reached this village when I saw a band
of some fifty horsemen approaching from the other end, and fearing that I
might be set upon and plundered I hastily concealed my goods at the edge
of the tank hard by. Alas! it availed me nothing. My servants were
dispersed, and the risaldar of the horsemen, a European, seized me and
thrust me into this house, abandoned like all the rest, for the people
fled before his approach, fearing he would burn and destroy. Then I was
tied up as you saw, until I confessed where my valuables were hidden; one
of my servants must have betrayed me. The risaldar promised to release me
as soon as I should confess: but inst