d their
losses at several hundreds of thousands, and the Nawab had found
only some L5000 in the treasury of Fort William, it is clear that
the wealth of Calcutta was either sunk in the Ganges or had fallen
as booty into the hands of the Moorish soldiers.

Siraj-ud-daula, though he did not yet know it, was a ruined man when
he returned to his capital. His only chance of safety lay in one of
two courses--either a loyal acceptance of the conditions imposed by
the English or a loyal alliance with the French against the English.
From the Dutch he could hope for nothing. They were as friendly to
the English as commercial rivals could be. They had always declared
they were mere traders and would not fight, and they kept their
word. After the capture of Calcutta the Nawab had exacted heavy
contributions from both the French and Dutch; but France and England
were now at war, and he thought it might be possible that in these
circumstances the restoration of their money to the French and the
promise of future privileges might win them to his side. He could
not, however, decide finally on either course, and the French were
not eager to meet him. They detested his character, and they
preferred, if the English would agree, to preserve the old
neutrality and to trade in peace. Further, they had received no
supplies of men or money for a long time; the fortifications of
Chandernagore, i.e. of Fort d'Orleans, were practically in ruins,
and the lesser Factories in the interior were helpless. Their
military force, for attack, was next to nothing: all they could
offer was wise counsel and brave leaders. They were loth to offer
these to a man like the Nawab against Europeans, and he and his
Court were as loth to accept them. Unluckily for the French,
deserters from Chandernagore had served the Nawab's artillery when
he took Calcutta, and it was even asserted that the French had
supplied the Nawab with gunpowder; and so when the English heard of
these new negotiations, they considered the proposals for a
neutrality to be a mere blind; they forgot the kindness shown by the
French to English refugees at Dacca, Cossimbazar, and Chandernagore,
and determined that, as a permanent peace with the Nawab was out of
the question, they would, whilst he hesitated as to his course of
action, anticipate him by destroying the one element of force which,
if added to his power, might have made him irresistible. They
continued the negotiations for a neutral