fiance,
doubtless expecting to see me led to instant execution. But I have an
instinct which tells me when a man is afraid of me, and I could see
that, for the time, Surajah Dowlah was cowed.

My cousin Gurney seized this opportunity to attract the Nabob's
attention, and take credit for his exploit. He stepped towards me and
said, in such Indostanee as he could command--

"Silence, wretch! Sabat Jung is in the Carnatic, nor would he dare to
come into Bengal without the permission of the Lord of the English,
Surajah Dowlah. When he hears of the conquest of Cossimbuzar and Fort
William the heart of Sabat Jung will become as water."

I gave him a scornful look.

"If his Highness judges of the English by you he will be deceived," I
said. "If you were ever to show your face in any place where Sabat
Jung was he would have you hanged, as you very well know."

I kept my eyes fixed on the young Nabob's face as I spoke, and was
pleased to see that I had made an impression. He looked uneasily from
one to the other of us, and then, before Rupert could reply, ordered
us both from his presence.

I found myself kept a close prisoner for that night and a part of the
next day in the house of a rich Indian, which stood beside the
Morattoe ditch. From this place I could hear some noise of guns
occasionally, and was obliged to conjecture how the fight was going
on. There was something very trying and painful in being near enough
to a battle-field to share its anxieties without being allowed to join
in the work. But I had a pretty sure presentiment that the affair
would end badly for us, and so indeed it proved; for about four in the
afternoon there was a great commotion outside the place where I was
confined, and my guards came in to fetch me, telling me with cruel
pleasure that Fort William had surrendered, and I was to be brought
there to join the other prisoners.

I will not stay to describe the confused spectacle of the streets
through which we passed on our way to the fort. What struck me most,
and put a deep depression upon my spirits, was to see the fierce
exultation of the native Indians in our discomfiture. In this hour of
our overthrow these men, who had lived unmolested beneath our
government, and thriven by means of our commerce, openly revealed all
that vehement malice and hatred toward us which is, I suppose, part of
their nature, and not to be eradicated by any fairness of dealing. I
should be ashamed to relate the