It was necessary for Law to withdraw as quickly as possible if he was to preserve his liberty. Clive and Mir Jafar wrote urgent letters to Ramnarain at Patna to stop him, but Ramnarain was no lover of Mir Jafar, and he was not yet acquainted with Clive, so he allowed him to pass. Law says:—
"On the 16th of July we arrived at Dinapur, eight miles
above Patna, where I soon saw we had no time to lose.
The Raja of Patna himself would not have troubled us much.
By means of our boats we could have avoided him as we
pleased, for though our fleet was in a very bad condition,
still it could have held its own against the naval forces
of Bengal, i.e. the Indian forces, but the English were advancing,
commanded by Major Coote. As the English call
themselves the masters of the aquatic element, it became us
the less to wait for them, when we knew they had stronger
and more numerous boats than we had. Possibly we could
have outsailed them, but we did not wish to give them the
pleasure of seeing us flee. On the 18th instant an order
from the Raja instructed me in the name of Mir Jafar to
halt—no doubt to wait for the English—whilst another on his
own part advised me to hurry off. Some small detachments
of horsemen appeared along the bank, apparently to hinder
us from getting provisions or to lay violent hands on the
boatmen. On this we set sail, resolved to quit all the
dependencies of Bengal. In spite of ourselves we had to
halt at Chupra, twenty-two miles higher up, because our
rowers refused to go further: prayers and threats all seemed
useless. I thought the English had found some means to
gain them over. The boats did not belong to us, but we
should have had little scruple in seizing them had our
Europeans known how to manage them. Unfortunately,
they knew nothing about it. The boats in Bengal have no
keel, and consequently do not carry sail well. So we lost
two days in discussion with the boatmen, but at last, by
doubling their pay, terms were made, and five days after, on
the 25th of July, we arrived at Ghazipur, the first place of
importance in the provinces of Suja-ud-daula, Viceroy of the
Subahs of Oudh, Lucknow, and Allahabad."
Before Law left Rajmehal on his return to Patna, the Faujdar tried to stop him on pretence that Mir Jafar wished to reconcile him to the English. Law thought this unlikely, yet knowing the native proclivity for underhand intrigue, he wrote him a letter, but the answer which he received at Chupra was merely an order to surrender. Law says:—
"I had an idea that he might write to me in a quite
different style, unknown to the English. I knew the new
Nawab, whom I met at the time I was soliciting reinforcements
to raise the siege of Chandernagore. He had not then
taken up the idea of making himself Nawab. He appeared
to me a very intelligent man, and much inclined to do us
service, pitying us greatly for having to work with a man so
cowardly and undecided as Siraj-ud-daula."
Law thought his communication—
"was well calculated to excite in his mind sentiments
favourable to us, but if it did, Mir Jafar let none of them
appear. The Revolution was too recent and the influence of
the English too great for him to risk the least correspondence
with us."
From Clive, on the other hand, he received a letter,—
"such as became a general who, though an enemy, interested
himself in our fate out of humanity, knowing by his own
experience into what perils and fatigues we were going to
throw ourselves when we left the European Settlements."
This letter, dated Murshidabad, July 9th, was as follows:—
"As the country people are now all become your enemies,
and orders are gone everywhere to intercept your passage,
and I myself have sent parties in quest of you, and orders
are gone to Ramnarain, the Naib of Patna, to seize you if
you pursue that road, you must be sensible if you fall into
their hands you cannot expect to find them a generous
enemy. If, therefore, you have any regard for the men
under your command, I would recommend you to treat with
us, from whom you may expect the most favourable terms in
my power to grant."[[104]]