ith the same state as formerly, clad in
his gold-embroidered robes and turban sparkling with the light of many
gems, surrounded by the same obsequious throng of courtiers and
attended by his ferocious guards ready to take the life of any man
present, at a nod from their despotic lord. Yet I discovered something
in his countenance which I had not seen there before. His head hung
down with an air of weariness, and his gaze, instead of darting
fiercely to and fro, seemed to shift and hesitate as if with a
lurking distrust of those about him. He appeared to be in ill-health,
and shifted fretfully about in his seat as he talked. On my part, I
regarded him with different eyes from the time when I had come before
him as a captive in his hands, when I had viewed him as a powerful
tyrant, invested with all the horror of his recent crimes, and
especially of that never-to-be-forgotten atrocity of the Black Hole of
Calcutta. Now, on the last occasion on which I was ever to confront
him, I did so as the emissary of one whose power was yet greater than
his own, as the agent of an intrigue that menaced his throne and
perhaps his life. And beneath the surface of pomp and power and the
outward show of sovereignty, I looked deeper, and beheld merely a
young man, scarce older than myself--in his nineteenth year--the
victim of an evil education, corrupted by the possession of despotic
power, rent and exhausted by his own evil passions, and surrounded by
traitors secretly scheming for his downfall. Some of the dread and
hatred which I had formerly felt for him was replaced by milder
sentiments, and I could have found it in my heart to pity Surajah
Dowlah.

As if to strengthen these impressions in my mind, the young Nabob was
in a singularly amiable mood, and appeared glad to see me.

"So it is you again!" he was pleased to say when I was introduced. "I
see that you have told me the truth, and that you are a friend of
Sabat Jung's. But why did you flee from me before? I regarded you with
favour, and would not have put you to death."

"Sir," I answered, "I am obliged by your kind expressions, but I am an
Englishman, and in my country there is no man who can put me to death
unless I commit some crime against the laws; nor do I choose to live
in any place where I hold my life by the favour of a prince."

A murmur ran through the throng of courtiers at this reply, some of
the high officers whom I knew to be concerned in the plot pretending