t believe that I should have spoken like
that if I had really been privy to any intrigues against him. He
therefore dismissed his fears, and finally promised to issue orders
for his whole army to retire to Moorshedabad.

Satisfied with this success, I took my leave of him, his last words to
me as I withdrew being--

"Tell the Colonel I trust him; I look upon him as my friend."

Moved by these words more than I cared to admit even to myself, I
returned to Mr. Watts, and, all being now in train, we pushed forward
the affair of the signatures as rapidly as we dared.

During these few eventful days I neglected no means of inquiring after
the fate of those whom I had left in the Nabob's hands on my former
flight from Moorshedabad. But though I questioned not merely the great
officers of the Court, but also many of the eunuchs and inferior
servants about the palace, I could learn nothing definite either of
Marian or of Rupert. That they had not succeeded in recovering their
freedom I was pretty well assured, but what had become of them, and
whether they were alive or dead, was more than I could learn. The
shadow and the secrecy of the East had closed like a curtain over
their fates, and I was left to torment myself with miserable guesses
in the darkness.

The business of signing the treaty went on as rapidly as it could be
pushed. But the greed of the Gentoos at every step of the transaction
was most disgusting, and the cowardice and treachery of the Moors
scarcely less so. The Dewan, Roy Dullub, at first objected that all
the Nabob's treasure was not enough to satisfy the gratuities provided
for in the treaty, but no sooner did Mr. Watts offer to make him agent
for the distribution, with a commission of five in the hundred on all
sums passing through his hands, than his scruples instantly vanished.

But at last everything was settled except the swearing of the treaty
by Meer Jaffier, on which the whole affair turned. The Meer was just
now arrived in Moorshedabad from Plassy, where he had been in command
of one division of the Nabob's army, the remainder having before been
taken from him and given to Roy Dullub. It was reported that Surajah
Dowlah had received his uncle very scurvily, and spoken to him with so
much harshness that Meer Jaffier had at once retired to his palace, at
the other end of the city, and surrounded himself with his guards.
This palace resembled a fortress, having regular walls and towers, and
bei