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culty in finding greedy adventurers to follow their standards. They united their interests, invaded the Carnatic, and applied for assistance to the French, whose fame had been raised by their success against the English in the recent war on the coast of Coromandel.

Nothing could have happened more pleasing to the subtle and ambitious Dupleix. To make a Nabob of the Carnatic, to make a Viceroy of the Deccan, to rule under their names the

scarcely any aggression could be with- | unsettled state of Indian law it was out a pretext, either in old laws or in easy for both Mirzapha Jung and recent practice. All rights were in a Chunda Sahib to make out something state of utter uncertainty; and the like a claim of right. In a society altoEuropeans who took part in the dis-gether disorganized, they had no diffiputes of the natives confounded the confusion, by applying to Asiatic politics the public law of the West, and analogies drawn from the feudal system. If it was convenient to treat a Nabob as an independent prince, there was an excellent plea for doing so. He was independent, in fact. If it was convenient to treat him as a mere deputy of the Court of Delhi, there was no difficulty; for he was so in theory. If it was convenient to consider his office as an hereditary dig-whole of Southern India; this was innity, or as a dignity held during life only, or as a dignity held only during the good pleasure of the Mogul, arguments and precedents might be found for every one of those views. The party who had the heir of Baber in their hands, represented him as the undoubted, the legitimate, the absolute sovereign, whom all subordinate authorities were bound to obey. The party against whom his name was used did not want plausible pretexts for maintaining that the empire was in fact dissolved, and that, though it might be decent to treat the Mogul with respect, as a venerable relic of an order of things which had passed away, it was absurd to regard him as the real master of Hindostan.

deed an attractive prospect. He allied himself with the pretenders, and sent four hundred French soldiers, and two thousand sepoys, disciplined after the European fashion, to the assistance of his confederates. A battle was fought. The French distinguished themselves greatly. Anaverdy Khan was defeated and slain. His son, Mahommed Ali, who was afterwards well known in England as the Nabob of Arcot, and who owes to the eloquence of Burke a most unenviable immortality, fled with a scanty remnant of his army to Trichinopoly; and the conquerors became at once masters of almost every part of the Carnatic.

This was but the beginning of the greatness of Dupleix. After some In the year 1748, died one of the months of fighting, negotiation, and most powerful of the new masters of intrigue, his ability and good fortune India, the great Nizam al Mulk, Vice- seemed to have prevailed everywhere. roy of the Deccan. His authority de- Nazir Jung perished by the hands of scended to his son, Nazir Jung. Of his own followers; Mirzapha Jung was the provinces subject to this high func- master of the Deccan; and the triumph tionary, the Carnatic was the wealthiest of French arms and French policy was and the most extensive. It was go- complete. At Pondicherry all was exverned by an ancient Nabob, whose ultation and festivity. Salutes were name the English corrupted into Ana- fired from the batteries, and Te Deum verdy Khan. sung in the churches. The new Nizam came thither to visit his allies; and the ceremony of his installation was performed there with great pomp. Dupleix, dressed in the garb worn by Mahommedans of the highest rank, entered the town in the same palanquin with the Nizam, and, in the pageant which followed, took precedence of all the

But there were pretenders to the government both of the viceroyalty and of the subordinate province. Mirzapha Jung, a grandson of Nizam al Mulk, appeared as the competitor of Nazir Jung. Chunda Sahib, son-in-law of a former Nabob of the Carnatic, disputed the title of Anaverdy Khan. In the

The English had made some feeble and irresolute attempts to stop the rapid and brilliant career of the rival Company, and continued to recognise Mahommed Ali as Nabob of the Carnatic. But the dominions of Mahommed Ali consisted of Trichinopoly alone; and Trichinopoly was now invested by Chunda Sahib and his French auxiliaries. To raise the siege seemed impossible. The small force which was then

court. He was declared Governor of India from the river Kristna to Cape Comorin, a country about as large as France, with authority superior even to that of Chunda Sahib. He was intrusted with the command of seven thousand cavalry. It was announced that no mint would be suffered to exist in the Carnatic except that at Pondicherry. A large portion of the treasures which former Viceroys of the Deccan had accumulated found its way into the cof-at Madras had no commander. Major fers of the French governor. It was rumoured that he had received two hundred thousand pounds sterling in money, besides many valuable jewels. In fact, there could scarcely be any limit to his gains. He now ruled thirty millions of people with almost absolute power. No honour or emolument could be obtained from the government but by his intervention. No petition, unless signed by him, was perused by the Nizam.

Mirzapha Jung survived his elevation only a few months. But another prince of the same house was raised to the throne by French influence, and ratified all the promises of his predecessor. Dupleix was now the greatest potentate in India. His countrymen boasted that his name was mentioned with awe even in the chambers of the palace of Delhi. The native population looked with amazement on the progress which, in the short space of four years, an European adventurer had made towards dominion in Asia. Nor was the vain-glorious Frenchman content with the reality of power. He loved to display his greatness with arrogant ostentation before the eyes of his subjects and of his rivals. Near the spot where his policy had obtained its chief triumph, by the fall of Nazir Jung, and the elevation of Mirzapha, he determined to erect a column, on the four sides of which four pompous inscriptions, in four languages, should proclaim his glory to all the nations of the East. Medals stamped with emblems of his successes were buried beneath the foundations of this stately pillar, and round it arose a town bearing the haughty name of Dupleix Fatihabad, which is, being interpreted, the City of the Victory of Dupleix.

Lawrence had returned to England; and not a single officer of established character remained in the settlement. The natives had learned to look with contempt on the mighty nation which was soon to conquer and to rule them. They had seen the French colours flying on Fort St. George; they had seen the chiefs of the English factory led in triumph through the streets of Pondicherry; they had seen the arms and counsels of Dupleix everywhere successful, while the opposition which the authorities of Madras had made to his progress, had served only to expose their own weakness, and to heighten his glory. At this moment, the valour and genius of an obscure English youth suddenly turned the tide of fortune.

Clive was now twenty-five years old. After hesitating for some time between a military and a commercial life, he had at length been placed in a post which partook of both characters, that of commissary to the troops, with the rank of captain. The present emergency called forth all his powers. He represented to his superiors that unless some vigorous effort were made, Trichinopoly would fall, the house of Anaverdy Khan would perish, and the French would become the real masters of the whole peninsula of India. It was absolutely necessary to strike some daring blow. If an attack were made on Arcot, the capital of the Carnatic, and the favourite residence of the Nabobs, it was not impossible that the siege of Trichinopoly would be raised. The heads of the English settlement, now thoroughly alarmed by the success of Dupleix, and apprehensive that, in the event of a new war between France and Great Britain, Madras

would be instantly taken and destroyed,, guns, the battlements too low to proapproved of Clive's plan, and intrusted tect the soldiers. The little garrison the execution of it to himself. The had been greatly reduced by casualties. young captain was put at the head of It now consisted of a hundred and two hundred English soldiers, and twenty Europeans and two hundred three hundred sepoys, armed and dis- sepoys. Only four officers were left; ciplined after the European fashion. the stock of provisions was scanty; and Of the eight officers who commanded the commander, who had to conduct this little force under him, only two had the defence under circumstances so ever been in action, and four of the discouraging, was a young man of fiveeight were factors of the Company, and-twenty, who had been bred a bookwhom Clive's example had induced to keeper. offer their services. The weather was stormy; but Clive pushed on, through thunder, lightning, and rain, to the gates of Arcot. The garrison, in a panic, evacuated the fort, and the English entered it without a blow.

During fifty days the siege went on. During fifty days the young captain maintained the defence, with a firmness, vigilance, and ability, which would have done honour to the oldest marshal in Europe. The breach, howBut Clive well knew that he should ever, increased day by day. The garnot be suffered to retain undisturbed rison began to feel the pressure of possession of his conquest. He instantly hunger. Under such circumstances, began to collect provisions, to throw up any troops so scantily provided with works, and to make preparations for officers might have been expected to sustaining a siege. The garrison, which show signs of insubordination; and the had fled at his approach, had now re- danger was peculiarly great in a force covered from its dismay, and, having composed of men differing widely from been swollen by large reinforcements each other in extraction, colour, lanfrom the neighbourhood to a force of guage, manners, and religion. But three thousand men, encamped close to the devotion of the little band to its the town. At dead of night, Clive marched out of the fort, attacked the camp by surprise, slew great numbers, dispersed the rest, and returned to his quarters without having lost a single man. The intelligence of these events was soon carried to Chunda Sahib, who, with his French allies, was besieging Trichinopoly. He immediately detached four thousand men from his camp, and sent them to Arcot. They were speedily joined by the remains of the force which Clive had lately scattered. They were further strengthened by two thousand men from Vellore, and by a still more important reinforcement of a hundred and fifty French soldiers whom Dupleix despatched from Pondicherry. The whole of this army, amounting to about ten thousand men, was under the command of Rajah Sahib, son of Chunda Sahib.

Rajah Sahib proceeded to invest the fort of Arcot, which seemed quite incapable of sustaining a siege. The walls were ruinous, the ditches dry, the ramparts too narrow to admit the

chief surpassed anything that is related of the Tenth Legion of Cæsar, or of the Old Guard of Napoleon. The sepoys came to Clive, not to complain of their scanty fare, but to propose that all the grain should be given to the Europeans, who required more nourishment than the natives of Asia. The thin gruel, they said, which was strained away from the rice, would suffice for themselves. History contains no more touching instance of military fidelity, or of the influence of a commanding mind.

An attempt made by the government of Madras to relieve the place had failed. But there was hope from another quarter. A body of six thousand Mahrattas, half soldiers, half robbers, under the command of a chief named Morari Row, had been hired to assist Mahommed Ali; but thinking the French power irresistible, and the triumph of Chunda Sahib certain, they had hitherto remained inactive on the frontiers of the Carnatic. The fame of the defence of Arcot roused them

from their torpor. Morari Row de-effect of religious zeal, and the beclared that he had never before be- siegers, drunk with enthusiasm, drunk lieved that Englishmen could fight, with bang, rushed furiously to the attack. but that he would willingly help them since he saw that they had spirit to help themselves. Rajah Sahib learned that the Mahrattas were in motion. It was necessary for him to be expeditious. He first tried negotiation. He offered large bribes to Clive, which were rejected with scorn. He vowed that, if his proposals were not accepted, he would instantly storm the fort, and put every man in it to the sword. Clive told him in reply, with characteristic haughtiness, that his father was an usurper, that his army was a rabble, and that he would do well to think twice before he sent such poltroons into a breach defended by English soldiers.

Rajah Sahib determined to storm the fort. The day was well suited to a bold military enterprise. It was the great Mahommedan festival which is sacred to the memory of Hosein, the son of Ali. The history of Islam contains nothing more touching than the event which gave rise to that solemnity. The mournful legend relates how the chief of the Fatimites, when all his brave followers had perished round him, drank his latest draught of water, and uttered his latest prayer, how the assassins carried his head in triumph, how the tyrant smote the lifeless lips with his staff, and how a few old men recollected with tears that they had seen those lips pressed to the lips of the Prophet of God. After the lapse of near twelve centuries, the recurrence of this solemn season excites the fiercest and saddest emotions in the bosoms of the devout Moslem of India. They work themselves up to such agonies of rage and lamentation that some, it is said, have given up the ghost from the mere effect of mental excitement. They believe that whoever, during this festival, falls in arms against the infidels, atones by his death for all the sins of his life, and passes at once to the garden of the Houris. It was at this time that Rajah Sahib determined to assault Arcot. Stimulating drugs were employed to aid the

Clive had received secret intelligence of the design, had made his arrangements, and, exhausted by fatigue, had thrown himself on his bed. He was awakened by the alarm, and was instantly at his post. The enemy advanced, driving before them elephants whose foreheads were armed with iron plates. It was expected that the gates would yield to the shock of these living battering-rams. But the huge beasts no sooner felt the English musket-balls than they turned round, and rushed furiously away, trampling on the multitude which had urged them forward. A raft was launched on the water which filled one part of the ditch. Clive, perceiving that his gunners at that post did not understand their business, took the management of a piece of artillery himself, and cleared the raft in a few minutes. Where the moat was dry the assailants mounted with great boldness; but they were received with a fire so heavy and so well directed, that it soon quelled the courage even of fanaticism and of intoxication. The rear ranks of the English kept the front ranks supplied with a constant succession of loaded muskets, and every shot told on the living mass below. After three desperate onsets, the besiegers retired behind the ditch.

The struggle lasted about an hour. Four hundred of the assailants fell. The garrison lost only five or six men. The besieged passed an anxious night, looking for a renewal of the attack. But when day broke, the enemy were no more to be seen. They had retired, leaving to the English several guns and a large quantity of ammunition.

The news was received at Fort St. George with transports of joy and pride. Clive was justly regarded as a man equal to any command. Two hundred English soldiers and seven hundred sepoys were sent to him, and with this force he instantly commenced offensive operations. He took the fort of Timery, effected a junction with a division of Morari Row's army, and

effectual for the removing of this delusion than the public and solemn demolition of the French trophies.

hastened, by forced marches, to attack | power in Europe, and that the English Rajah Sahib, who was at the head of did not presume to dispute her supreabout five thousand men, of whom macy. No measure could be more three hundred were French. The action was sharp; but Clive gained a complete victory. The military chest of Rajah Sahib fell into the hands of the conquerors. Six hundred sepoys, who had served in the enemy's army, came over to Clive's quarters, and were taken into the British service. Conjeveram surrendered without a blow. The governor of Arnee deserted Chunda Sahib, and recognised the title of Mahommed Ali.

The government of Madras, encouraged by these events, determined to send a strong detachment, under Clive, to reinforce the garrison of Trichinopoly. But just at this conjuncture, Major Lawrence arrived from England, and assumed the chief command. From the waywardness and impatience of control which had chaHad the entire direction of the war racterized Clive, both at school and in been intrusted to Clive, it would pro- the counting-house, it might have been bably have been brought to a speedy expected that he would not, after such close. But the timidity and incapa-achievements, act with zeal and good city which appeared in all the move- humour in a subordinate capacity. ments of the English, except where he But Lawrence had early treated him was personally present, protracted the with kindness; and it is bare justice struggle. The Mahrattas muttered to Clive to say that, proud and overthat his soldiers were of a different bearing as he was, kindness was never race from the British whom they found thrown away upon him. He cheerelsewhere. The effect of this languor fully placed himself under the orders was that in no long time Rajah Sahib, of his old friend, and exerted himself at the head of a considerable army, in as strenuously in the second post as he which were four hundred French troops, could have done in the first. Lawappeared almost under the guns of rence well knew the value of such asFort St. George, and laid waste the sistance. Though himself gifted with villas and gardens of the gentlemen of no intellectual faculty higher than the English settlement. But he was plain good sense, he fully appreciated again encountered and defeated by the powers of his brilliant coadjutor. Clive. More than a hundred of the Though he had made a methodical French were killed or taken, a loss study of military tactics, and, like all more serious than that of thousands of men regularly bred to a profession, natives. The victorious army marched was disposed to look with disdain on from the field of battle to Fort St. interlopers, he had yet liberality enough David. On the road lay the City of to acknowledge that Clive was an exthe Victory of Dupleix, and the stately ception to common rules. "Some monument which was designed to people," he wrote, "are pleased to commemorate the triumphs of France term Captain Clive fortunate and lucky; in the East. Clive ordered both the but, in my opinion, from the knowcity and the monument to be rased to ledge I have of the gentleman, he the ground. He was induced, we be- deserved and might expect from his lieve, to take this step, not by personal conduct every thing as it fell out;-a or national malevolence, but by a just man of an undaunted resolution, of a and profound policy. The town and cool temper, and of a presence of mind its pompous name, the pillar and its which never left him in the greatest vaunting inscriptions, were among the danger-born a soldier; for, without devices by which Dupleix had laid the a military education of any sort, or public mind of India under a spell. much conversing with any of the proThis spell it was Clive's business to fession, from his judgment and good break. The natives had been taught sense, he led on an army like an exthat France was confessedly the first | perienced officer and a brave soldier,

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