As the Governor[82] and commandant[83] of the troops were among the fugitives, those who were left behind chose Mr. Holwell as their chief. Soon finding that resistance was impossible, he desired to surrender; but, before he could obtain an answer, the enemy stormed and made themselves master of the fort. Suraj-u-Dowlah, when Mr. Holwell was carried into his presence with his hands bound, directed them to be untied, and spoke to him in a manner calculated to give him hopes of protection: nothing, at least, indicated the fate that awaited this gentleman and his unfortunate companions; and indeed, as the Nabob had no reason for desiring their death, we cannot suppose that it was by his command they were, on the night of the day they were made prisoners, thrust into that prison emphatically called the Black Hole, from which, of a hundred and forty-six persons, only twenty-three came out alive.
"Some of our company," says Mr. Cooke[84], "expired very soon after being put in: others grew mad, and having lost their senses, died in a high delirium. All we could urge to the guard set over us, could not prevail upon them either to set us at liberty, or separate us into different prisons; which we desired, and offered money to obtain; but to no purpose: and when we were released at eight o'clock the next morning, only twenty-three came out alive."
The indignation excited against Suraj-u-Dowlah in the breast of every Englishman, on account of the murder of these persons, was just; even though he never intended[85] to perpetrate so cruel an action.
Wrapt in proud indifference as to what befel those unfortunate beings, whom fortune had thrown into his power, the tyrant was not to be approached with the tale of their unexampled sufferings, at the moment when they might have been alleviated; and he never showed any sense of remorse when the dreadful catastrophe was narrated to him, nor evinced any resentment against those who had not only driven their captives into the dark and narrow place of destruction, but had turned a deaf ear to the earnest prayers and the dying groans of the unhappy sufferers.
Two fitter instruments than Watson and Clive could not have been chosen to avenge their country, and to re-establish the interests of the Company in Bengal; and their efforts were warmly seconded by Mr. Pigot, Governor of Madras, who gave them all the assistance he could, to promote the success of a service of vital importance to the prosperity, and indeed to the very existence, of the Company in India.