Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 18.10.2

18.10.2

This Prince, now in the full blaze of success, had assembled in his palace, all the treasures hoarded up by several preceding Princes, with an infinity of precious effects and jewels, that had been the fruit of the searches and toil of several illustrious houses and families. He seemed then in the zenith of power and prosperity; but it was at this very time that preparations were making for his ruin; and it was at this very time his fortune was verging to a decline. Nor is this a novel thing. It is the constant course of events all over the world, that whenever things have risen to their zenith, they after that period verge towards a decline, and tend to their ruin. For every completion naturally advances to a declension, and sometimes brings it on in so complete a manner, that people have been at a loss how to find out the footsteps and traces of former prosperity. The manner in which Seradj-ed-doulah's fortune and dominion were brought to that predicament is, in few words, as follows:— Mr. Drake, that Chief Man of Calcutta, who had been the author and cause of all these troubles and all this ruin, having fled on board a ship with a few gentlemen that had escaped the engagement, had retired to Mendradj, a factory of consequence, which the English have in Decan, in the province of Arcat;