of money if Clive would surrender, and denouncing instant death if Clive awaited a storm; but he found his offers and his threats received with equal disdain. Exasperated at the scornful answer, he made every preparation for a desperate attack on the morrow. It was the 14th of November, the fiftieth day of the siege, and the anniversary of the festival in commemoration of that martyr of early Islam, Hosein *, when, according to the creed of the Mahometans of India, any one who falls in battle against unbelievers is wafted at once into the highest region of Paradise. But, not solely trusting to the enthusiasm of the day, Rajah Sahib had recourse, moreover, to the excitement of BANG, an intoxicating drug, with which he plentifully supplied his soldiers. Before daybreak they came on every side rushing furiously up to the assault. Besides the breaches which they expected to storm, they had hopes to break open the gates by urging forwards several elephants with plates of iron fixed to their foreheads; but the huge animals, galled by the English musketry, as of yore by the Roman javelins †, soon turned, and trampled down the multitudes around them. Opposite one of the breaches where the water of the ditch was deepest another party of the enemy had launched a raft, with seventy men upon it, and began to cross. In this emergency Clive, observing that his gunners fired with bad aim, took himself the management of one of the field-pieces with so much effect that in three or four discharges he had upset the raft and drowned the men. Throughout the day his valour and his skill were equally conspicuous, and every assault of his opponents was repulsed with heavy loss. In the first part of the night their fire was renewed, but at two in the morning it ceased, and at the return of daylight it appeared that they had raised the siege, and were already out of sight,

* The fate of Hosein is eloquently and pathetically told by Gibbon. (Hist., vol. ix. p. 343–346. ed. 1820.) He adds in a note, the key to the excellence of his description: "The pathetic almost always "consists in the details of little circumstances."

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+ " Elephanti, in quorum tergis infixa stetere pila, ut est genus anceps, in fugam versi etiam integros avertere Eo magis ruere in suos belluae .

Elephanti quoque duo in ipsâ portâ

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conruerant." (Liv. Hist., lib. xxvii. c. 14.)

INDIA.]

THE ENEMY REPULSED.

309

leaving 400 men dead upon the ground, with all their ammunition and artillery.

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Elated at this result of his exertions, Clive was not slow in sallying forth, and combining his little garrison with the detachment from Morari Row, and with some reinforcements from Europe which had lately landed at Madras. Thus strengthened, he sought out Rajah Sahib, and gave him battle near the town of Arnee. On this occasion he beheld for the first time in action. -happily for him, ranged on his own side,—the activity and bravery of the Mahrattas. 66 'They fight," says an excellent historian, "in a manner peculiar to themselves; their cavalry are armed with sabres, and every horseman is closely accompanied by a man on foot armed with a sword and a large club; and some instead of a club carry a short strong spear; if a horse be killed, and the rider remains "unhurt, he immediately begins to act on foot; and if "the rider falls, and the horse escapes, he is immediately "mounted, and pressed on to the charge by the first foot66 man who can seize him." * On the other hand, Rajah Sahib, though the greater part of his own troops were dispersed, had been reinforced from Pondicherry with 300 Europeans and nearly 3,000 Sepoys. The issue of the battle, however, was a complete victory to Clive; the enemy's military chest, containing a hundred thousand rupees, fell into the hands of his Mahrattas; and not less than 600 of the French Sepoys, dispirited by their failure, came over with their arms, and consented to serve in the English ranks.

Člive next proceeded against the great PAGODA, or Hindoo temple, of Conjeveram, into which the French had thrown a garrison. Their governor, who had lately surprised and taken two wounded English officers, sent Clive warning, that if the pagoda were attacked the prisoners should be exposed on the walls to the first fire of their countrymen. But a private note was added by the brave officers themselves,—their names deserve to be recorded; Lieutenants Revel and Glass, entreating Clive to take no heed of their safety, and to do his duty at all risks. The barbarous threat was not, however,

Orme's Hist., vol. i, p. 198.

put in execution, and Clive, entering the place, after three days' cannonade, found the French garrison escaped by night, and the English officers unhurt.

Notwithstanding these events, Rajah Sahib was not disheartened. In January 1752, finding that Clive had marched to Fort St. David, he suddenly collected a body of his own troops and of his French auxiliaries, and pushed forwards to Madras. There was little or no force to withstand him in the open field, and he laid waste, without resistance, the gardens and the countryhouses of the British merchants. Clive was recalled in haste from the south; and at the village of Coverpauk he again encountered Rajah Sahib; again with complete success. From the scene of action he marched back in triumph to Fort St. David, passing on his way near the newly raised "City of the Victory of Dupleix," and the foundation of the pompous Pillar. By a just requital, Clive directed that these monuments of premature exultation should be razed to the ground.

At Trichinopoly the effect of Clive's earliest successes had been to turn the siege into a languid blockade, and with a little more energy on the part of the English garrison it might no doubt have been wholly raised; but all our leaders were not Clives. The indecision and want of enterprise of Captain Gingen excited the murmurs even of his own soldiers, and yet more of his auxiliaries. Surely," cried one of the Mahrattas, "these are not "the same race of men as those we saw fighting at "Arcot!"

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Such being the state of affairs, the heads of the English Presidency resolved to send a new expedition to Trichinopoly under Clive's command. At this period, however, Major Lawrence returned from Europe. Many a junior officer, flushed with successes, such as Clive's, might have disdained to serve under a senior. Many a senior officer, on the other hand, might have been jealous of such a junior. To the credit both of Clive and of Lawrence no such feelings appear to have sprung up between them. Clive continued his strenuous exertions in the public cause; and Lawrence, a good, though not a brilliant soldier, always readily employed and warmly acknowledged the talents of his second in command.

INDIA.]

SURRENDER AT SERINGHAM.

311

The expedition to Trichinopoly, led by Lawrence and Clive, was crowned with triumphant success. Lawrence adopted the daring proposal of Clive to divide, at the risk of receiving a separate attack, the army into two divisions, so as to surround the French. There arose some difficulty from the strict rules of seniority in our service to give, as Lawrence desired, the command of one division to Clive, who was the youngest Captain of his force. But his doubts were speedily solved by his auxiliaries, the Mahrattas and Mysoreans, who declared that they would take no part in this enterprise unless it were directed by the defender of Arcot.* In the result the French besiegers of Mahomed Ali were themselves besieged in the island of Seringham in the river Cavery, and were compelled to lay down their arms. Chunda Sahib himself surrendered to a native chief named Monackjee, who took an oath for his safety on his own sabre and poniard, the most sacred of all oaths to an Indian soldier, but who, nevertheless, shortly afterwards put his prisoner to death. "The Mahrattas," says Mr. Orme, scarcely rate the life of a man at the value of his "turban."

The severed head of Chunda Sahib, a man whose benevolence and humanity are acknowledged even by his enemies, was borne into the city of Trichinopoly, and into the presence of the Nabob, Mahomed Ali, who now for the first time beheld the face of his rival. After exhibiting the gory trophy in triumph to his courtiers, it was by his directions tied to the neck of a camel, and carried five times round the walls of the city, attended by an hundred thousand spectators, and insulted by every form of outrage. Such were the customs and the feelings from which India has been freed by the British dominion! It might have been expected that such successes, and, above all, the murder of one of the competitors, would finally decide the conquest for the government of the Carnatic. But immediately after his victory Mahomed Ali had become involved in dissensions with his allies, the Mahrattas and Mysoreans, to whom he had promised, without ever really intending, the cession of Malcolm's Life of Clive, vol. i. p. 110.

* Orme's Hist., vol. i. p. 220.

Trichinopoly. These bickerings gave fresh life and spirit to Dupleix. Although he found his recent policy disapproved by his employers in Europe, although he received from them only reproofs instead of supplies, although the recruits sent out to him were, according to his own description, no other than "boys, shoe-blacks, "and robbers," "" * - he yet clung to his own schemes with unconquerable perseverance. He laboured to train and discipline his recruits; and, in the want of other funds, he advanced for the public service not less than 140,000l. of his own money. He hastened to acknowledge Rajah Sahib as Nabob of Arcot; and on the incapacity of that competitor becoming apparent, still not discouraged, he proclaimed another chieftain in his place. Nor did he intermit the most active negotiations with the Nizam. This was no longer Mirzapha Jung, who had survived his elevation only a few months, but his successor, Salabat Jung, who had been elected mainly by the French influence, and generally leaned to the French interest. At the Court of this prince Dupleix had for some time past stationed his best officer, Bussy, whose abilities had gained him great weight, and enabled the Nizam to prevail over his numerous opponents. "Had I only a second Bussy,' writes Dupleix, "I should long ago have put an end to "the war in the Carnatic."† It was with other and far inferior officers that Dupleix now resumed hostilities, again attempted Arcot, and again besieged Trichinopoly. Notwithstanding all his exertions, the warfare proved weak and languid, and was far from enabling the French to recover their lost ground.

Clive had for some time continued to distinguish himself in the desultory operations which followed the surrender of Seringham. He had reduced in succession the two important forts of Covelong and Chingleput. But his health was beginning to fail beneath the burning sun of India; his return to England had become essential to his recovery, and he embarked at Madras early in the year 1753, immediately after his marriage to Miss Mar

*"Enfans, decrotteurs, et bandits!" Lettre à M. de Machault, le 16 Octobre 1753. The English recruits in India were little better. † Lettre à M. de Machault, le 16 Octobre 1753.