RECOVERY AND AFTER
women and servants who still followed his fortunes, and attempted to make his way up the river in boats, hoping to find an asylum in the northern provinces. But past misdeeds now rose against him: the party stopped to try and procure food at the cell of a Mohammedan recluse; this man, remembering a wanton insult received from the nawab in the past, detained the fugitives with promises of assistance, while he sent information of their presence to the new nawab, Jaffir Khan. The unhappy Suraj-ud-Dowlah, so long the petted and spoilt child of Fortune, was seized and carried back to Murshedabad, where, within a few days of the first anniversary of the Massacre of the Black Hole, he was murdered in cold blood as he lay fettered in a dungeon.
With the death of Suraj-ud-Dowlah the troubles of the English were at an end. The new nawab lost no time in sending to Calcutta the indemnity promised to the inhabitants for their losses and sufferings. From the depths of poverty and humiliation they were raised at once to wealth and power. The town gave itself up to general rejoicing, and at this happy time, says Orme, "Quarrels were forgotten and enemies became friends."
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