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Law was, however, ignorant that Clive had already promised, or did so soon after, to give the property of the French Company to the Seths in payment of the money the French owed them; but he now for the first time fully realized the gravity of the situation. The indiscretion of the Seths showed him the whole extent of the plot, and the same evening he told the Nawab, but
Possibly he did not love the Seths, but he feared them, which was sufficient to make him useless to us. "Rai Durlabh Ram, the other Diwan of the Nawab, was the man to whom I was bound to trust most. Before the arrival of Clive he might have been thought the enemy of the English. It was he who pretended to have beaten them and to have taken Calcutta.
"The notorious Ranjit Rai was driven in disgrace from the Durbar, banished, and assassinated on the road. It was said he had received 2 lakhs from the English to apply his masters' seal unknown to them. I can hardly believe this. This agent was attached to the English only because he knew the Seths were devoted to them."
'All is ready, replied the Nawab, 'but before resorting to arms it is proper to try all possible means to avoid a rupture, and all the more so as the English have just promised to obey the orders I shall send them. I recognized the hand of the Seths in these details. They encouraged the Nawab in a false impression about this affair.
He wished, he said, to maintain his reputation; but after the affair of the 5th of February, in which the only part he took was to share in the flight, he was not the same man; he feared nothing so much as to have to fight the English. This fear disposed him to gradually come to terms with the Seths, of whose greatness he was very jealous.
"Fire or six minutes after Mr. Watts had gone to the Nawab, the Arzbegi, accompanied by some officers and the agents of the Seths and the English, came and told me aloud, in the presence of some fifty persons of rank, that the Nawab ordered me to submit myself entirely to what Mr. Watts demanded. I told him I would not, and that it was impossible for the Nawab to have given such an order.
Disappointed at not seeing me appear, they had advanced to the very gates of the palace. The Arzbegi, not knowing what would be the result of this affair, and wishing to get out of the scrape and to throw the burden of it on to the Seths' agent, said to him, 'Do you speak, then; this affair concerns you more than us. The Seths' agent wished to speak, but I did not give him time.
He now listened to the proposals of the Seths, and towards the end of April terms were settled between him and the English. The actual conclusion of the Treaty took place early in June, and on the 13th of that month Mr. Watts and the other English gentlemen at Cossimbazar escaped under the pretence of a hunting expedition and joined Clive in safety.
He spoke to several of the chief men about the English. "I felt sure that, after the Revolution in Bengal, they would be the only subject of conversation in the capital. The Revolution had made much noise, but it was ascribed entirely to the Seths and to Rai Durlabh Ram. Clive's name was well known.
But Omichand, who was on bad terms with Mir Jafar and the Seths, threatened to reveal the whole plot to the Nawab and have Mr. Watts put to death, unless he were guaranteed in the treaty the payment of a sum of money equivalent to nearly four hundred thousand pounds.
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