rmer, some the latter, course. He had decided to
resist, and had ordered his troops to be massed for this purpose, when
he heard of the arrival of Mir Jafar. Then he resolved upon flight, and
accompanied by his favorite wife and a single eunuch, he left his palace
in disguise, and entering a boat which had been engaged for the purpose,
reached Rajmahal, ninety miles distant, on the evening of the fourth
day. There the rowers were obliged to halt for a rest, and taking refuge
in a deserted garden, the Nawab was seen by a fakir whose ears he had
caused to be cut off thirteen months before and was handed over to Mir
Jafar's brother, who resided at Rajmahal. He was at once captured, sent
back to Murshidabad, and handed over to Mir Jafar on July 2d. He pleaded
earnestly for his life, offering to give up everything else, and Mir
Jafar, probably remembering the kindness he had received from the
grandfather of his prisoner, was at first disposed to spare him, but
afterward consulted with his higher officials, some of whom advocated a
policy of clemency, while others, including Mir Jafar's son, Miran, a
truculent youth, not unlike Suraj ud Daulah in disposition, urged that
the only security against a fresh revolution lay in the death of the
prisoner. The latter accordingly was made over to Miran, by whose orders
he was brutally murdered in the course of the night.

FOOTNOTES:

[40] Nabob.

[41] It should be remembered that at that time it was the fashion in
private letters and in society to describe naval and military officers
as if they were civilians, and not by their naval or military rank.

SEVEN YEARS' WAR

BATTLE OF TORGAU

A.D. 1756-1763

WOLFGANG MENZEL FREDERICK THE GREAT

In the Seven Years' War Prussia stood practically alone against the
united strength of all Europe; and it was the success of her King,
Frederick, in withstanding the assaults of the vast and determined
coalition that won him from the unanimous voice of military critics
the title of the "Great." The tremendous conflict, the most gigantic
in Europe, between the Thirty Years' War and the French Revolution,
was the natural outcome of that earlier contest in which Frederick
had seized Silesia. If this strong and able monarch was the type of
the new spirit of doubt and endless questioning which had begun to
permeate Europe, his chief antagonist, Maria Theresa, was no less
emblematic of all that w