uld become Subahdar. It was followed by
another from a man occupying a still higher position, from the
Bakhshi, or Commander-in-chief, Mir Jafar Khan. This Clive accepted,
receiving at the same time offers of adhesion from Raja Dulab Rao;
from other leading nobles, and from the influential bankers and
merchants of Murshidabad.

Then began those negotiations one detail of which has done so much to
stain the name of the great soldier. The contracting parties employed
in their negotiations one Aminchand, a Calcutta merchant of
considerable wealth, great address, unbounded cunning, and absolutely
without a conscience. When {87}the plot was at its thickest, this
man--who was likewise betraying the confidence which Siraj-ud-daula
bestowed upon him, when the least word would have rendered it
abortive--informed the Calcutta Select Committee, through Mr. Watts,
that unless twenty lakhs of rupees were secured to him in the
instrument which formed the bond of the confederates, he would at
once disclose to the Subahdar the plans of the conspirators. The
inevitable result of this disclosure would have been ruin to all the
conspirators; death to many of them. To baffle the greed of this
blackmailer, Clive caused two copies of the document to be drawn up,
from one of which the name of Aminchand was omitted. To disarm his
suspicions, the false document was shown him. This latter all the
contracting parties had signed, with the exception of Admiral Watson,
who demurred, but who, according to the best recollection of Clive in
his evidence before the Committee of the House of Commons, did not
object to have his name attached thereto by another.[2]

[Footnote 2: These are the facts of the transaction: they will be
commented upon in a future page. Vide comment near the end of Chapter
X.]

Space would fail were I to detail the various modes employed by the
confederates to produce on the mind of Siraj-ud-daula the conviction
that his only safety lay in battle with the English. He had tried
many methods to escape the dilemma, to rid himself of the heavy hand
of Clive. He had made overtures to Bussy at Haidarabad; to the
Marathas; to the Court {88}of Delhi; to the Nawab-Wazir of Oudh. But
every proposed combination had fallen through. He had quarrelled with
Mir Jafar, with his chief nobles, with the bankers. He had suspected
treachery, but had never been quite certain. At last, on the
thirteenth of June, information was brought to him that