that they did not wish to receive me in their houses!' In
short, people knew, long before the death of Aliverdi Khan,
that Siraj-ud-daula was hostile to the English."

With the French it was different:--

"On the other hand, he was very well disposed towards
us. It being our interest to humour him, we had received
him with a hundred times more politeness than he deserved.
By the advice of Rai Durlabh Ram and Mohan Lal, we had
recourse to him in important affairs. Consequently, we
gave him presents from time to time, and this confirmed his
friendship for us. The previous year (1755) had been a
very good one for him, owing to the business connected with
the settlement of the Danes in Bengal. In fact, it was by
his influence that I was enabled to conclude this affair, and
Aliverdi Khan allowed him to retain all the profit from it,
so I can say that I had no bad place in the heart of Siraj-ud-daula.
It is true he was a profligate, but a profligate who
was to be feared, who could be useful to us, _and who might
some day be a good man_. Nawajis Muhammad Khan[71] had
been at least as vicious as Siraj-ud-daula, and yet he had
become the idol of the people."

Law, therefore, had cultivated the young Nawab. Mr. Watts, on the
other hand, was not only foolish enough to neglect him, but carried
his folly to extremes. He was not in a position to prevent his
accession, and ought therefore to have been careful by the
correctness of his behaviour to show no signs of being opposed to
it. So far from this, he is strongly suspected of having entered