The natives of Bengal, as yet ignorant of the construction of the English government, ascribed every thing to Clive. They considered him as the exclusive author of the success which had attended the English arms; and with his life many expected it to terminate. The existence of such sentiments gave probability to the reports of plots said to have been formed, both at Moorshedabad and at Patna, for his assassination; and he was warned of them by persons who deemed their information authentic. But he does not appear to have given such warnings any attention. He continued steadily to pursue his object of supporting the Nabob he had raised to the throne, while at the same time he took every measure to save the interests of his country from the dangers to which they were exposed from the vacillating weakness, or the excited feelings, of that prince.
When Clive arrived at Moorshedabad with Roy Dullub, he found the Nabob's son Meeran in a state of great irritation, at the restoration of that Hindu influence, which it was the real though concealed object of Meer Jaffier's expedition to Patna to destroy. The disposition of this young man, as far as it had yet developed itself, was sanguinary and rapacious. He was, as has been related, the cause of Suraj-u-Dowlah's being put to death: and this act, with the more recent assassination of the son of that Prince, and the imprisonment of his mother, had made him unpopular with the more peaceable part of his father's subjects, particularly the Hindus, who dreaded his cruelty and violence. But the Mahommedan chiefs and soldiers, whose pride had been wounded, and who were checked in their licentious habits, hailed these qualities, which, combined with Meeran's known jealousy and hatred of the English, gave them hopes of recovering, through his means, their lost influence and power.
Meeran had entered warmly into his father's feelings of jealousy of the rising consequence of Clive, increased as it had been by his success in quelling, through the influence of his personal character, the three rebellions which lately threatened the state; but the chief subjects of irritation were his open protection of Roy Dullub, and his travelling with that minister to Moorshedabad. The Prince felt, or affected to feel, alarmed at their approach: he commenced levying troops, and declared to Mr. Scrafton, that unless Clive gave him a solemn promise of protection, he would be compelled to have recourse to arms, to avert the danger with which his life was threatened by the hostility of Roy Dullub. He not only made these sentiments public, but went out of the city in apparent alarm as Clive entered it. Clive, who had received a private letter from Mr. Scrafton[207] informing him of Meeran's conduct, was not prepared for this step, which threw Moorshedabad into the utmost consternation. To this was added the receipt of intelligence of a French squadron on the coast of Coromandel, and of the superiority which that nation had acquired in land forces. To counteract the bad impressions which such news might make at so critical a moment, Clive exaggerated a slight naval success which had been obtained by the English into a complete victory.[208] He also wrote to the Nabob on the same day, complaining of the strange behaviour of Meeran, and stating that he could not continue in Bengal, if his zeal to support him was to be rewarded with suspicion and distrust. But before an answer was received, the Prince, persuaded of his error, had returned to the city, and made the most submissive apologies for his conduct.