“Oh, sir, is it true that good Mr Holwell was used in this barbarous fashion, and exposed to the insults of the citizens, after enduring the miseries of that terrible night?”
“Why, yes, madam. Poor Mr Holwell was hardly used indeed, being sacrificed first to the pique of his colleagues, and then to the resentment of Omy Chund, whom he had left in prison when he took command of Fort William. You may chance to have heard it said that Omy Chund never forgives, and he had old grudges also to avenge, and so the four gentlemen found it who were sent here after the fall of Calcutta. There’s a gay young spark belonging to your Cossimbuzar factory that would say the same, I think. Being permitted to refuge with the Dutch, Mr Hastings thought fit to abuse his Highness’s clemency by stirring up his subjects to revolt against him; but a whisper from Omy Chund,[06] to whom he had opened his designs, warned Saradjot Dollah, and sent the young intriguer flying to join his friends at Fulta. A most useful worthy fellow is Omy Chund, and I myself have good cause to be grateful to him. But this brings me to the object of my troubling my charmer with a visit to-night. Will Clarissa permit me to make preparations for our union when I return from Allynagore?”
“Our union, sir?” I stammered.
“Why, yes, madam, that delightful event which has shone like a beacon before your adorer throughout these long months. What! did Clarissa wrong her Sinzaun by imagining that he purposed to keep her immured within these walls, remote alike from the society and the enjoyments of her sex? No, madam; permit me to seek a priest at Chandernagore, and bring him with me on my return (you see my care for your punctilio—I offer you no Moorish marriage), and Clarissa shall discover what delights can be offered for her acceptance by the man she has so infinitely obliged. A palace instead of this rustic abode, such clothing and jewels as no queen in Europe could show, a place and credit second only to that of Ally Verdy Cawn Begum herself, and the eternal adoring devotion of her attached Sinzaun.”
Now why was it, Amelia, that I could not refuse this proposition at once? “Oh, sir, you overwhelm me——” I faltered, with my eyes on the ground.
“Nay,” replied my suitor, “Clarissa has certainly misjudged me. Did she imagine that I destroyed Calcutta merely that I might keep her a prisoner?”
“You destroyed Calcutta, sir?”
“Why, yes, madam, though I would have spared it had you deigned to listen to my vows, as I expressed in the first chitt I writ you.” I remembered the billet I had read aloud to my dear papa and Captain Colquhoun, and shuddered. “Had Clarissa yielded to my entreaties, could I have done less than spare her countrymen for her sake? My influence thrown on the side of clemency, instead of into the opposite scale, would have turned his Highness from his purpose, or at the least I could have delayed the march by some accident to the artillery, and so given time for the rains to begin, which would have saved Calcutta. But since Clarissa remained obdurate, I could do no less than destroy the place whose capture meant that I should obtain possession of her.”
“But, sir, you could not—oh, I don’t know what I am saying—my head is in a whirl—’twas the merest chance——”
“There was no chance at all, madam. My plans were all concerted with Omy Chund. Who prevented you from going on board the ships with t’other women? Omy Chund, through his servant. Who raised the panic that drove Mr Drak to fly before the time he had intended? This same servant. Who was prepared to protect you against his Highness’s soldiers by asserting my authority? The fellow again. Who suffered you to slip through his fingers that night, but redeemed his fault nobly the next day by sending an agent of his with you as your attendant? Omy Chund himself. Sure Clarissa can’t talk of chance now, any more than she can pretend to mistake my design in thus making myself master of the being I adored.”