ould yet, under pressure,
play it. He had seen that the new ruler was so enamoured of the
paraphernalia of power that, rather than renounce it, he would agree
to whatever terms he might impose which would secure for him nominal
authority. There was but one point regarding which he had doubts, and
that was whether the proud Muhammadan nobles to whom, in the days of
the glories of the Mughal empire, great estates had been granted in
Bengal, would tamely submit to a system {116}which would give to the
Western invaders all the actual power, and to the chief of their own
class and religion only the outer show.

The application from Mir Jafar, then, found Clive in the mood to test
this question. Mir Jafar had thrown himself into his hands; he would
use the chance to make it clear that he himself intended to be the
real master, whilst prepared to render to the Subahdar the respect
and homage due to his position. Accordingly he started at once
(November 17) for Murshidabad with all his available troops, now
reduced at Calcutta to 400 English and 1300 sipahis, and reached that
place on the 25th, bringing with him the disaffected Raja of Purniah.
His peace he made with the Mir Jafar; then, joined by the 250
Europeans he had left at Kasimbazar, he proceeded to Rajmahal, and
encamped there close to the army of the Subahdar, who had marched it
thither with the object of coercing Bihar.

This was Clive's opportunity. Bihar was very restive, and the
Subahdar could not coerce its nobles without the aid of the English.
Clive declined to render that aid unless the Subahdar should, before
one of his soldiers marched, pay up all the arrears due to the
English, and should execute every article of the treaty he had
recently signed. For Mir Jafar the dilemma was terrible. He had not
the money; he had made enemies by his endeavours to raise it. In this
trouble he bethought him of Raja Dulab Ram, recently his Finance
Minister, but whom {117}he had subsequently alienated. Through
Clive's mediation a reconciliation was patched up with the Raja. Then
the matter was arranged in the manner Clive had intended it should
be, by giving the English a further hold on the territories of the
Subahdar.

It was agreed that Clive should receive orders on the treasury of
Murshidabad for twelve and a half lakhs of rupees; assignments on the
revenues of Bardwan, Kishangarh, and Hugli for ten and a half: for
the payments becoming due in the following April, as