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Through the stately halls and along the marble pavements, amid the servile crowd that swarmed to pay homage to Meer Jaffier, I passed, and on till I came to that hideous stair up which I had brought two of Surajah Dowlah's victims such a short time before. On the way I gathered something of what had taken place.
It was a usurpation yet green in the country, and the country felt uneasy under it. It had not the advantage of that prescriptive usage, that inveterate habit, that traditionary opinion, which a long continuance of any system of government secures to it. The only real security which Surajah Dowlah's government could possess was the security of an army.
One of Surajah Dowlah's former subjects, a man whose ears the young Nabob had barbarously cut off for some offence, had recognised him in his flight, and had betrayed him to the agents of his successor. He was brought back in chains to Moorshedabad and carried before Meer Jaffier, at whose feet he flung himself, sobbing, and beseeching that his miserable life might be spared.
I have news of Marian, and want your aid to carry her off from Surajah Dowlah's harem!" As soon as I had heard that name from Rupert's lips, all my hesitation was at once overcome, as he no doubt foresaw would be the case. "Come," I said, springing upon my feet with an energy I had not felt for some time, "let us be going, then."
But before that day came there were many things to be done, nor would I have willingly left the land of Indostan till I had seen the blood of the English he had so barbarously murdered revenged upon Surajah Dowlah's head. How this was to be brought about I did not then know, yet I had a confidence that it would be so, which sustained me.
Shortly afterwards a letter arrived, written by Surajah Dowlah's instructions to Colonel Clive, in which he referred to the treaty on foot between them, and complained bitterly of the attack upon his camp. "Now, Ford," said the Colonel to me, when he had shown me this letter, "I feel a different man to what I did yesterday. Sit down and write my answer to this insolent Moor."
The Nabob stared, not understanding to whom I referred; but an older man, with a proud, discontented, and yet apprehensive air, who also stood on the daïs, and was, I found out, Meer Jaffier, Surajah Dowlah's uncle, and commander of his armies, this man, I say, spoke in explanation "The youth means that he came on the ship with Sabat Jung."
His wickedness had been rewarded; his crimes had met a heavier retribution than any I had ever thought to inflict. He had fallen into the hands of one compared to whom he had been but a beginner in iniquity; one fit of Surajah Dowlah's cruel frenzy had struck upon him, and had left him branded for life. Of Marian's fate he knew nothing.
But now, if you are sufficiently rested, let us proceed." Speaking these mocking words, he made his men bind my wrists together with a cord, and conducted me out of the streets of the town towards Surajah Dowlah's camp. The tent of the Nabob was a fine great pavilion of yellow and crimson cloth.
Even in Surajah Dowlah's army there must have been men, there must have been officers, to whom the tyrant, if he had wished his prisoners to be well treated, could have intrusted them, in the full confidence and certainty that his commands would be carried out, and his humane wishes humanely interpreted.
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