"After some reflection, I determined to obey. I thought that by taking presents I could avoid the inconveniences I feared, so I arranged to start early on the morning of the 13th with five or six persons well armed. A slight rain detained us till 10 o'clock. On leaving I told my people that M. Sinfray was their commandant, and ordered him, if I did not return by 2 o'clock, to send a detachment of forty men to meet me. We arrived at the Nawab's palace about midday. He had retired to his harem. We were taken into the Audience Hall, where they brought us a very bad dinner. The Nawab, they said, would soon come. However, 5 o'clock had struck and he had not yet dressed. During this wearisome interval I was visited by some of the _Diwans_, among others by the _Arzbegi._[94] I asked him why the Nawab had called me. He replied with an appearance of sincerity that as the Nawab was constantly receiving complaints from the English, about the numerous garrison we had in our Factory, he had judged it proper to summon both Mr. Watts and myself in order to reconcile us, and that he hoped to arrange matters so that the English should have nothing to fear from us nor we from them. He added that the Nawab was quite satisfied with my behaviour, and wished me much good. At last the _Durbar_ hour arrives. I am warned. I pass into a hall, where I find Mr. Watts and a number of _Diwans_. The agent of the Seths is present Compliments having passed, one of the _Diwans_ asks me if I have anything particular to say to Mr. Watts. I answer that I have not. Thereupon Mr. Watts addresses me in English: 'The question is, sir, whether you are prepared to surrender your Factory to me and to go down to Calcutta with all your people. You will be well treated, and will be granted the same conditions as the gentlemen of Chandernagore. This is the Nawab's wish.' I reply I will do nothing of the kind, that I and all those with me are free, that if I am forced to leave Cossimbazar I will surrender the Factory to the Nawab, and to no one else. Mr. Watts, turning round to the _Diwans_, says excitedly, that it is impossible to do anything with me, and repeats to them word for word all that has passed between us.