ever, Clive undauntedly pushed forward. Slight as seems this incident, it became attended with important results, for the garrison, apprised by their outposts of the behaviour of the English, were seized with a superstitious panic, as though their opponents were in league with the Heavens, and they fled precipitately, not only from the city, but from the citadel. Thus Clive, without having struck a blow, marched through the streets amidst a concourse of an hundred thousand spectators, and took quiet possession of the citadel or fort. In that stronghold the Arcot merchants had, for security, deposited effects to the value of 50,000l., which Clive punctually restored to the owners; and this politic act of honesty conciliated many of the principal inhabitants to the English interest. Clive, learning that the fugitive garrison had been reinforced, and had taken post in the neighbourhood, made several sallies against them; in the last he surprised them at night, and scattered or put them to the sword. But his principal business was to prepare against the siege which he expected, by collecting provisions and strengthening the works of the fort. As he had foretold, his appearance at Arcot effected a diversion at Trichinopoly. Chunda Sahib immediately detached 4,000 men from his army, who were joined by 2,000 natives from Vellore, by 150 Europeans from Pondicherry, and by the remains of the fugitive garrison. Altogether, the force thus directed against Arcot exceeded 10,000 men, and was commanded by Rajah Sahib, a son of Chunda Sahib. The fort in which the English were now besieged was, notwithstanding some hasty repairs, in great measure ruinous; with the parapet low and slightly built, with several of the towers decayed, with the ditch in some parts fordable, in others dry, and in some choked up with fallen rubbish. But Clive undauntedly maintained, day after day, such feeble bulwarks against such overwhelming numbers. Nor did he neglect, amidst other more substantial means of defence, to play upon the fears and fancies of his superstitious enemy. Thus he raised on the top of his highest tower an enormous piece of ordnance, which he had found in the fort, and which, according to popular tradition, had been sent from Delhi in the reign of Aurungzebe, dragged along by a thousand yoke of oxen. INDIA.] CLIVE BESIEGED. 307 This cannon was useless for any real practical effect, but being discharged once a day with great form and ceremony, it struck, as we are told, no small alarm into Rajah Sahib and his principal officers.* 66 66 The exertions and the example of Clive had inspired his little band with a spirit scarce inferior to his own. "I have it in my power," writes Sir John Malcolm, " from authority I cannot doubt, to add an anecdote to the ac"count of this celebrated siege. When provisions became so scarce that there was a fear that famine might compel them to surrender, the Sepoys proposed to Clive "to limit them to the water (or gruel) in which the rice was boiled. It is,' they said, 'sufficient for our sup66 6 port; the Europeans require the grain.'-This fact "is as honourable to Clive as to those under his command, "for the conduct of the native troops in India" (Sir John might, perhaps, have said the same of any troops in any country,) "will always be found to depend upon the cha"racter of the officers under whom they are employed." † 66 After several weeks' siege, however, the besiegers, scanty and ill-served as was their artillery, had succeeded in making more than one practicable breach in the walls. Some succour to the garrison was attempted from Madras, but in vain. Another resource, however, remained to Clive. He found means to despatch a messenger through the enemy's lines to Morari Row, a Mahratta chieftain, who had received a subsidy to assist Mahomed Ali, and who lay encamped with 6,000 men on the hills of Mysore. Hitherto, notwithstanding his subsidy, he had kept aloof from the contest. But the news how bravely Arcot was defended fixed his wavering mind. "I never thought " till now," said he, " that the English could fight. Since they can I will help them." And accordingly he sent down a detachment of his troops from the hills. 66 Rajah Sahib, when he learnt that the Mahrattas were approaching, perceived that he had no time to lose. He sent a flag of truce to the garrison, promising a large sum * Orme's Hist., vol. i. p. 191. See, in the Memoires du Baron de Tott, the consternation produced among the Turks by the discharge of another such enormous and useless piece of artillery at the Dardanelles in 1770 (vol. ii. p. 75. ed. 1785). † Life of Lord Clive, vol. i. p. 96. 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 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, men. * 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." "Elephanti, in quorum tergis infixa stetere pila, ut est genus 66 anceps, in fugam versi etiam integros avertere Eo magis 66 ruere in suos belluae Elephanti quoque duo in ipsâ portà 66 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. 66 66 66 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 foot 66 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!" 66 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. |