rd cries of
water-birds; at other times the prow of one's boat will suddenly
push itself through overhanging branches into the very midst of a
populous village. At first all is strange and beautiful, but after a
short time the feeling grows that every scene is a repetition; the
banks, the trees, the villages, seem as if we have been looking at
them for a thousand years, and the monotony presses wearily on mind
and heart. It was in a country of this kind that Courtin and his
little band of Frenchmen and natives evaded capture for nearly nine
months, and it adds to our admiration for his character to see how
his French gaiety of heart unites with his tenderness for his absent
wife, not only to conceal the deadly monotony of his life in the
river districts during the Rains, and the depressing and
disheartening effect of the noxious climate in which he and his
companions had to dwell, but also to make light of the imminent
danger in which he stood from the unscrupulous human enemies by whom
he was surrounded.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 65: From certain letters it appears that, strictly
speaking, the English Factory alone was at Cossimbazar, the French
being at Saidabad, and the Dutch at Calcapur. Both Saidabad and
Calcapur were evidently close to Cossimbazar, if not parts of it.]

[Footnote 66: George Lodewijk Vernet, Senior Merchant.]

[Footnote 67: The historian Malleson also confuses the two
brothers.]

[Footnote 68: The best copy I have seen is that in the Manuscript
Department of the British Museum.]

[Footnote 69: Gholam Husain Khan says that Siraj-ud-daula was born
in the year in which Aliverdi Khan obtained from the Emperor the
_firman_ for Bihar. This, according to Scrafton, was 1736, and the
connection of his birth with this auspicious event was the prime
cause of his grandfather's great reference for him.]

[Footnote 70: See note, p. 88.]

[Footnote 71: Uncle of Siraj-ud-daula, who died so shortly before
the death of Aliverdi Khan, that it was supposed he was poisoned to
ensure Siraj-ud-daula's accession.]

[Footnote 72: Fazl-Kuli-Khan. _Scrafton_.]

[Footnote 73: Law says; "The rumour ran that M. Drake replied to the
messengers that, since the Nawab wished to fill up the Ditch, he
agreed to it provided it was done with the heads of Moors. I do not
believe he said so, but possibly some thoughtless young Englishman
let slip those words, which, being heard by the messengers, were
reported to the Nawab.