Europeans. Many stories are told of the debates in his _Durbar_[3]
on this subject: according to one, he is reported to have compared
the Europeans to bees who produce honey when left in peace, but
furiously attack those who foolishly disturb them; according to
another he compared them to a fire[4] which had come out of the sea
and was playing harmlessly on the shore, but which would devastate
the whole land if any one were so imprudent as to anger it. His
wisdom died with him, and in April, 1756, his grandson,
Siraj-ud-daula, a young man of nineteen,[5] already notorious for
his debauchery and cruelty, came to the throne. The French--who, of
all Europeans, knew him best, for he seems to have preferred them to
all others--say his chief characteristics were cruelty, rapacity,
and cowardice. In his public speeches he seemed to be ambitious of
military fame. Calcutta was described to him as a strong fortress,
full of wealth, which belonged largely to his native subjects, and
inhabited by a race of foreigners who had grown insolent on their
privileges. As a proof of this, it was pointed out that they had not
presented him with the offerings which, according to Oriental
custom, are the due of a sovereign on his accession. The only
person who dared oppose the wishes of the young Nawab was his
mother,[6] but her advice was of no avail, and her taunt that he, a
soldier, was going to war upon mere traders, was equally
inefficacious. The records of the time give no definite information
as to the tortuous diplomacy which fanned the quarrel between him
and the English, but it is sufficiently clear that the English
refused to surrender the son of one of his uncle's _diwans_,[7] who,
with his master's and his father's wealth, had betaken himself to
Calcutta. Siraj-ud-daula, by the treacherous promises of his
commanders, made himself master of the English Factory at
Cossimbazar without firing a shot, and on the 20th of June, 1756,