522
IllSTOKV or IM)IA.
[Book J 1 1.
Conspiracy •against Sci-feraz Khan.
A.D. 1741. for the honour of lils fiunily, was carried to the palace in the evening. No violence wa.s offered her; but even rnurnentary exposure to the rude gaze of tlte licentious nabob was dishonour which wtis not to be efi'aced, and could only l^e avenjjed. From this moment Serferaz Khan was left without a sincere friend ; and those who, for his fathers sake, were once disposed to have stoo<l like a shield around him, entered eagerly into a conspiracy to effect his ruin.
The primary object of the conspiracy wtis to make Ali Verdy Khan Nabob of Bengal. To give some colour to the proceeding, application was made to the reigning emperor, Mahomed iShah, who, having never confirmed Serferaz Klian in his government, was easily induced to regard him as an usuryier, and set him aside to make way for one who, while he far surj>{issed him in talents, promised to enrich the Delhi treasury by the present payment of £1,000,000 sterling, the transmission of Serferaz Khan's confiscated property and effects — valued at several millions more, and the future delivery of the revenue with all the punc- tuality which had been observed by Jaffier Khan. The contemplated ^e^'olu- tion thus obtained a kind of legal sanction, and secured the support of many who probably would have stood aloof if it had continued to wear its original form of conspiracy and rebellion. Everything being now prepared, one obstacle remained to be surmounted. Haji, with his famih-, was still at Moorshedabad, and completely at the mercy of Serferaz Khan, who. the moment the conspiracy was unfolded, would certainly make them the first victims of his rage and ven- geance. By means of a series of dexterous and unscrupulous manoeuTes, the nabob w^as deluded into the belief that Haji's absence would prove his best security, and he allowed him to depart with his family for Patna. Ali Verdy, now free to act, at once commenced operations, and advanced with such rapidity that his movements were not known at Moorshedabad till he had surmounted the difficult passes of Terriagully and Sicklygully, among the Rajamahal Hills, where his progress might have been arrested, and about to penetrate into the very heart of Bengal. Serferaz Khan, confounded at the intelligence, looked about in vain for the counsel and aid of which he had deprived himself by his gross misconduct. At last, however, after wasting some time in unavailing negotiation, he began to display an energy of which he had not previously been deemed capable, and hastily collected an army of 30,000 men, with which he encamped on a plain near Comra, about twenty-two miles north of his capital Though superior in numbers, his troops were no match for Ali Verdy's Afghans, who speedily decided the fortune of the day. On seeing that all was lost, Ser- fei'az Khan refused to join the fugitives, and iiished into the thickest of the enemy, when, after he had nearly expended his whole quiver of arrows, he fell pierced through the forehead by a musket-ball.
Ali Verdy, following up his victory, entered Moorshedabad without opposi- tion, and seated himself on the musnud. The odious government of his prede- cessor made the change generally acceptable, and all ranks hastened to congra-
Ali Verdy
becomes nabob.
