“Nay, sir, I don’t doubt but the 50,000 rupees allotted you were worthily earned otherwise than by your dealings with the treaty.”
“However they were earned,” says the young gentleman, with something of a sigh, “they’ll be well spent. Every anna but what I need for the most pressing necessaries shall go home to my family. ’Twill furnish marriage portions for my sisters, place my brothers out in life, and relieve my honoured father of his cruellest anxieties. I’ll assure you, gentlemen, that at least the money shall be better employed than if Omy Chund had received it.”
And turning resolutely from the topic, he described to us the miserable end of Surajah Dowlah, who, escaping in disguise with one of his favourite women and a single servant, was recognised by a facquier whose nose and ears he had ordered to be cut off a year ago, when on his march against the Purranea Nabob, and being seized and brought back to Muxadavad was murdered secretly by emissaries of Meer Jaffier’s son Meerham. So surely have the crimes of this wretched prince brought their own punishment! Of Sinzaun nothing certain can be learned. There’s a rumour of his being still alive, but if so, he’s a fugitive in the Berbohm[07] country, with the rest of the Frenchmen that escaped from Placis, and have failed to join with Mons. Law, who is refuging at Patna, whither Major Coote was to start to-day with a sufficient force to bring him and his soldiers in as prisoners. The first instalment of the treasure due to the inhabitants of Calcutta as a compensation for their losses of last year is to be paid over to-morrow by Raja Doolubram, who has been set over the Muxadavad treasury, and it is to be sent down the river at once, when Colonel Clive is so good as to suggest that Mr Fraser and I should take advantage of the chance to travel by one of the boats carrying it, which will ensure both our comfort and safety.
At Mr Hurstwood’s House, Calcutta, July ye 12th.
Once more, Amelia, I date my letter from Calcutta, after a voyage which has been one long triumph, owing to the precious freight of our fleet of boats. No less than a hundred of these were required to convey the Muxadavad treasure, which was packed in seven hundred chests, and guarded by a strong force of troops as far as the town of Nudiah.[08] Here the vessels were met by the boats of the squadron, and thus attended, with flags flying and bands of music playing, we sailed on to Calcutta, where the entire population, overwhelmed with delight at this extraordinary accession of wealth, gave way to the most extravagant rejoicing, and testified the utmost esteem and affection both for one another and for those in authority. Of these affecting demonstrations Mr Fraser and I were not witnesses, for an urgent letter from my dear Mrs Hurstwood had entreated us to land at Chitpore, and take breakfast with her at a bungulo or country-seat that Mr Hurstwood has lately bought. I found myself welcomed with tears of joy by my Charlotte, who appeared unable to make enough of me, and piqued me not a little by telling Mr Fraser roundly that much as she valued him, ’twas solely for my sake, and if he had any business in Calcutta, the day was his in which to do it, for she promised herself the pleasure of hearing my history from my own lips, and his interruptions were not desired. My dear spouse, knowing that I can’t endure to hear his punctilio slighted, even in jest, laughed at me for my vexation, and declared he had suffered far worse things from Mrs Hurstwood, offering to prove it by one of her letters, which had been effectual, he said, in making him less ready to take offence than he had once been, since ’twas impossible to speak of him in less flattering terms, which he had yet endured meekly at her hands. Having seen him depart in a palanqueen, for his wound is now so far recovered that he is able to sit up, though not to walk, my Charlotte and I set to work to exchange a year’s confidences. Figure to yourself, my dear girl, the prodigious task! If I had more to tell, Charlotte’s kind expressions of sympathy and her eager questions gave her full as large a part in the conversation, although she insisted that I should recount all my tale before she would consent to impart any news of her own. When at last all was told, I demanded of her with indignation how she could find it in her heart to put a slight upon a person that had behaved with the courage and generosity Mr Fraser had shown, at which she laughed.
“Why, child,” she said, “your zeal for your spouse charms me, I’ll assure you. I vow I must reward it by letting you see the letters he wrote to me during his search for you. ’Tis no breach of confidence, for he has promised to show you mine. Come, there’s the precious pacquet, which you may study in your palanqueen as we ride home, for I won’t have a moment of our talking-time wasted to-day.”
I leave you to picture, my Amelia, what your Sylvia’s feelings were on reading these charming letters, every page in which breathes the respect and affection with which her spouse is kind enough to regard your unworthy friend. I am determined to obtain Mrs Hurstwood’s leave to copy them out for myself, so that in case I am ever so base as to be in danger of forgetting how infinitely Mr Fraser has obliged me in the past, I may read them and be overwhelmed with shame, and I will contrive to grant my Amelia the privilege of reading them also. Those utterances in them which may appear extravagant, she’ll pardon as the evidence of the too-partial kindness entertained for her Sylvia by the writer, for indeed I could not bring myself to leave ’em out. Something of this sort I said to my Charlotte when we were arrived at Mr Hurstwood’s house, and she received it in her usual contradictory style.
“Indeed, child, I’m glad you’re pleased. As for me, I took no pleasure in your Fraser until he left off writing letters.”
“I am sorry my spouse annoyed Mrs Hurstwood with reports of his search for me.”
“I’m sorry to see Mrs Fraser petted about nothing. Why, child, when I received Dr Dacre’s letter announcing your marriage, and Fraser’s incoherent scrawl saying that he could find no words in which to write, I was satisfied at last that the fellow loved you as he ought. So long as he could talk about his transports, even to his mistress’s near friend, I could not repose in him the confidence I desired.”