n. His common sense
told him that the English would never consent to a neutrality, and
he wrote to Renault that it was absolutely necessary to join the
Moors.

"The neutrality was by no means obligatory, as no treaty
existed. In fact, what confidence could we have in a forced
neutrality, which had been observed so long only out of
fear of the Nawab, who for the general good of the country
was unwilling to allow any act of hostility to be committed
by the Europeans? Much more so when the English were
at war with the Nawab himself. If they managed to get
the better of him, what would become of this fear, the sole
foundation of the neutrality?"

So Law wrote to Renault, begging him, if he could not persuade the
English to sign a treaty of neutrality at once, to make up his mind
and join the Nawab. We have seen why Renault could do neither, and
Law, writing after the event says, generously enough:--

"I am bound to respect the reasons which determined
M. Renault as well as the gentlemen of the Council, who
were all much too good citizens not to have kept constantly
in their minds the welfare of our nation and the Company.
People always do see things differently, and the event does
not always prove the correctness or incorrectness of the
reasons which have decided us to take one or the other course."

As soon as the Nawab heard of the plundering of Hugli he set out for
Calcutta, but to blind the English he requested M. Renault to
mediate between them. The English refusal to treat through the
French had the effect of clearing up matters between the latter and
the Nawab; but he could not understand why the French would not
actively assist him. Certain, at any rate, that he had only the
English to deal with, he foolishly played into their hands by
marching to fight them on their own ground, whereas, if he had
remained idle at a little distance, merely forbidding supplies to be
sent them, he could have starved them out of Calcutta in a few
months. As I have said before, Clive attacked his camp on the 5th of
February, and so terrified him that he consented to a shameful
peace, in which he forgot all mention of the neutrality of the
Ganges. Law tells a curious story to the effect that what frightened
the Nawab most of all was a letter from Admiral Watson, threatening
to make him a prisoner and carry him to England. Watson's letter is
extant, and contains no such threat, but it is quite possib