lightning.

There were at that time, it seems, in Calcutta, a wicked, skeptical set
of people, who somehow or other believed that _human_ agency was
concerned in this elective flash, which came so very opportunely, and
which was a favor so thankfully acknowledged. These wicked, ill-natured
skeptics disseminated reports (which I am sure I do not mean to charge
or prove, leaving the effect of them to you) very dishonorable, I
believe, to Cossim Ali Khan in the business, and to some Englishmen who
were concerned.

The difficulty of getting rid of Meeran being thus removed, Mr.
Vansittart comes upon the scene. I verily believe he was a man of good
intentions, and rather debauched by that amazing flood of iniquity which
prevailed at that time, or hurried and carried away with it. In a few
days he sent for Major Calliaud. All his objections vanish in _an
instant_: like that flash of lightning, everything is _instant_. The
Major agrees to perform his part. They send for Cossim Ali Khan and Mr.
Hastings; they open a treaty and conclude it with him, leaving the
management of it to two persons, Mr. Holwell and another person, whom we
have heard of, an Armenian, called Coja Petruse, who afterwards played
his part in another illustrious scene. By this Petruse and Mr. Holwell
the matter is settled. The moment Mr. Holwell is raised to be a
Secretary of State, the revolution is accomplished. By it Cossim Ali
Khan is to have the lieutenancy at present, and the succession.
Everything is put into his hands, and he is to make for it large
concessions, which you will hear of afterwards, to the Company. Cossim
Ali Khan proposed to Mr. Holwell, what would have been no bad supplement
to the flash of lightning, the murder of the Nabob; but Mr. Holwell was
a man of too much honor and conscience to suffer that. He instantly flew
out at it, and declared the whole business should stop, unless the
affair of the murder was given up. Accordingly things were so settled.
But if he gave the Nabob over to an intended murderer, and delivered his
person, treasure, and everything into his hands, Cossim Ali Khan might
have had no great reason to complain of being left to the execution of
his own projects in his own way. The treaty was made, and amounted to
this,--that the Company was to receive three great provinces: for here,
as we proceed, you will have an opportunity of observing, with the
progress of these plots, one thing which has constantly and unifo