Clever?
Yes, undoubtedly, just as Satan is clever, and as unscrupulous as that very Satan.

This was what his friends said of him over their wine.

And now he was rumoured to have sold the British forces in the Carnatic provinces to one of the native Princes.

Yes, to have taken gold, gold to an amount which Clive in his most rapacious moments never dreamt of, for his countrymen's blood.

Tidings of dark transactions between the Governor and the native Princes had reached the ears of the Government, tidings so vague, so incredible, that the Government might naturally be slow to believe, still slower to act.