The 14th of November was a Mohammedan festival, and Riza Sahib
determined to utilize the enthusiasm and fanatic zeal, which such an
occasion always excites among the followers of the Prophet, to make
his grand assault upon Arcot, and to attack at three o'clock in the
morning. Every preparation was made on the preceding day, and four
strong columns told off for the assault. Two of these were to attack
by the breaches, the other two at the gates. Rafts were prepared to
enable the party attacking by the new breach to cross the moat, while
the columns advancing against the gates were to be preceded by
elephants, who, with iron plates on their foreheads, were to charge
and batter down the gates.
Clive's spies brought him news of the intended assault, and at
midnight he learned full particulars as to the disposition of the
enemy. His force was now reduced to eighty Europeans, and a hundred
and twenty Sepoys. Every man was told off to his post, and then,
sentries being posted to arouse them at the approach of the enemy, the
little garrison lay down in their places, to get two or three hours'
sleep before the expected attack.
At three o'clock, the firing of three shells from the mortars into the
fort gave the signal for assault. The men leaped up and stood to their
arms, full of confidence in their ability to resist the attack. Soon
the shouts of the advancing columns testified to the equal confidence
and ardour of the assailants.
Not a sound was heard within the walls of the fort, until the
elephants advanced towards the gates. Then suddenly a stream of fire
leaped out from loophole and battlement. So well directed and
continuous was the fire, that the elephants, dismayed at the outburst
of fire and noise, and smarting from innumerable wounds, turned and
dashed away, trampling in their flight multitudes of men in the dense
columns packed behind them. These, deprived of the means upon which
they had relied to break in the gates, turned and retreated rapidly.
Scarcely less prolonged was the struggle at the breaches. At the first
breach, a very strong force of the enemy marched resolutely forward.
They were permitted, without a shot being fired at them, to cross the
dry ditch, mount the shattered debris of the wall, and pour into the
interior of the fort. Forward they advanced until, without a check,
they reached the first trench bristling with spikes.
Then, as they paused for a moment, from the breastwork in front of
them, from the ramparts, and every spot which commanded the trench, a
storm of musketry was poured on them; while the gunners swept the
crowded mass with grape, and bags of bullets. The effect was
tremendous. Mowed down in heaps, the assailants recoiled; and then,
without a moment's hesitation, turned and fled. Three times, strongly
reinforced, they advanced to the attack; but were each time repulsed,
with severe slaughter.
Still less successful were those at the other breach. A great raft,
capable of carrying seventy, conveyed the head of the storming party
across the ditch; and they had just reached the foot of the breach,
when Clive, who was himself at this point, turned two field pieces
upon them, with deadly effect. The raft was upset and smashed, and the
column, deprived of its intended means of crossing the ditch, desisted
from the attack.
Among those who had fallen, at the great breach, was the commander of
the storming party; a man of great valour. Four hundred of his
followers had also been killed, and Riza Sahib, utterly disheartened
at his repulse at all points, decided not to renew the attack. He had
still more than twenty men to each of the defenders; but the obstinacy
of their resistance, and the moral effect produced by it upon his
troops; the knowledge that the Mahratta horse were hovering in his
rear, and that Kilpatrick's little column was close at hand;
determined him to raise the siege.
After the repulse of the assault, the heavy musketry fire from the
houses around the fort was continued. At two in the afternoon he asked
for two hours' truce, to bury the dead. This was granted, and on its
conclusion the musketry fire was resumed, and continued until two in
the morning. Then suddenly, it ceased. Under cover of the fire, Riza
Sahib had raised the siege, and retired with his army to Vellore.
On the morning of the 15th, Clive discovered that the enemy had
disappeared. The joy of the garrison was immense. Every man felt
proud, and happy in the thought that he had taken his share in a
siege, which would not only be memorable in English history till the
end of time, but which had literally saved India to us. The little
band made the fort re-echo with their cheers, when the news came in.
Caps were thrown high in the air, and the men indulged in every
demonstration of delight.
Clive was not a man to lose time. The men were at once formed up, and
marched into the abandoned camp of the enemy; where they found four
guns, four mortars, and a great quantity of ammunition. A cloud of
dust was seen approaching, and soon a mounted officer, riding forward,
announced the arrival of Captain Kilpatrick's detachment.
Not a moment was lost, for Clive felt the importance of, at once,
following up the blow inflicted by the repulse of the enemy. Three
days were spent, in continuous labour, in putting the fort of Arcot
again in a position of defence; and, leaving Kilpatrick in charge
there, he marched out with two hundred Europeans, seven hundred
Sepoys, and three guns, and attacked and took Timari, the little fort
which before baffled him.
This done, he returned towards Arcot to await the arrival of a
thousand Mahratta horse, which Murari Reo had promised him. When these
arrived, however, they proved unwilling to accompany him. Upon their
way, they had fallen in with a portion of Riza Sahib's retreating
force, and had been worsted in the attack; and as the chance of
plunder seemed small, while the prospect of hard blows was certain,
the free-booting horsemen refused, absolutely, to join in the pursuit
of the retreating enemy.
Just at this moment, the news came in that reinforcements from
Pondicherry were marching to meet Riza Sahib at Arni, a place
seventeen miles south of Arcot, twenty south of Vellore. It was stated
that, with these reinforcements, a large sum of money was being
brought, for the use of Riza Sahib's army. When the Mahrattas heard
the news, the chance of booty at once altered their intentions, and
they declared themselves ready to follow Clive. The greater portion of
them, however, had dispersed, plundering over the country, and great
delay was caused before they could be collected. When six hundred of
them had been brought together, Clive determined to wait no longer,
but started at once for Arni.
The delay enabled Riza Sahib, marching down from Vellore, to meet his
reinforcements; and when Clive, after a forced march of twenty miles,
approached Arni, he found the enemy, composed of three hundred French
troops, two thousand five hundred Sepoys, and two thousand horsemen,
with four guns, drawn up before it. Seeing their immense superiority
in numbers, these advanced to the attack.
Clive determined to await them where he stood. The position was an
advantageous one. He occupied a space of open ground, some three
hundred yards in width. On his right flank was a village, on the left
a grove of palm trees. In front of the ground he occupied were rice
fields, which, it being the wet season, were very swampy, and
altogether impracticable for guns. These fields were crossed by a
causeway which led to the village, but as it ran at an angle across
them, those advancing upon it were exposed to the fire of the English
front. Clive posted the Sepoys in the village, the Mahratta horsemen
in the grove, and the two hundred English, with the guns, on the
ground between them.
The enemy advanced at once. His native cavalry, with some infantry,
marched against the grove; while the French troops, with about fifteen
hundred infantry, moved along the causeway against the village.
The fight began on the English left. There the Mahratta cavalry fought
bravely. Issuing from the palm grove, they made repeated charges
against the greatly superior forces of the enemy. But numbers told,
and the Mahrattas, fighting fiercely, were driven back into the palm
grove; where they, with difficulty, maintained themselves.
In the meantime, the fight was going on at the centre. Clive opened
fire with his guns on the long column marching, almost across his
front, to attack the village. The enemy, finding themselves exposed to
a fire which they were powerless to answer, quitted the causeway, and
formed up in the rice fields fronting the English position. The guns,
protected only by a few Frenchmen and natives, remained on the
causeway.
Clive now despatched two of his guns, and fifty English, to aid the
hard-pressed Mahrattas in the grove; and fifty others to the village,
with orders to join the Sepoys there, to dash forward on to the
causeway, and charge the enemy's guns.
As the column issued from the village along the causeway, at a rapid
pace, the French limbered up their guns and retired at a gallop. The
infantry, dispirited at their disappearance, fell back across the rice
fields; an example which their horsemen on their right, already
dispirited by the loss which they were suffering, from the
newly-arrived English musketry and the discharges of the field pieces,
followed without delay.
Clive at once ordered a pursuit. The Mahrattas were despatched after
the enemy's cavalry, while he himself, with his infantry, advanced
across the causeway and pressed upon the main body. Three times the
enemy made a stand, but each time failed to resist the impetuosity of
the pursuers, and the night alone put a stop to the pursuit, by which
time the enemy were completely routed.
The material loss had not been heavy, for but fifty French and a
hundred and fifty natives were killed or wounded; but the army was
broken up, the morale of the enemy completely destroyed; and it was
proved to all Southern India, which was anxiously watching the
struggle, that the English were, in the field of battle, superior to
their European rivals. This assurance alone had an immense effect. It
confirmed, in their alliance with the English, many of the chiefs
whose friendship had hitherto been lukewarm; and brought over many
waverers to our side.
In the fight, eight Sepoys and fifty of the Mahratta cavalry were
killed or disabled. The English did not lose a single man. Many of
Riza Sahib's soldiers came in, during the next few days, and enlisted
in the British force. The Mahrattas captured the treasure, the
prospect of which had induced them to join in the fight, and the
governor of Arni agreed to hold the town for Muhammud Ali.
Clive moved on at once to Conjeveram, where thirty French troops and
three hundred Sepoys occupied the temple, a very strong building.
Clive brought up two eighteen-pounders from Madras, and pounded the
walls; and the enemy, seeing that the place must fall, evacuated it in
the night, and retired to Pondicherry. North Arcot being now
completely in the power of the English, Clive returned to Madras; and
then sailed to Fort Saint David, to concert measures with Mr. Saunders
for the relief of Trichinopoli. This place still held out, thanks
rather to the feebleness and indecision of Colonel Law, who commanded
the besiegers, than to any effort on the part of the defenders.
Governor Dupleix, at Pondicherry, had seen with surprise the result of
Clive's dash upon Arcot. He had, however, perceived that the
operations there were wholly secondary, and that Trichinopoli was
still the all-important point. The fall of that place would more than
neutralize Clive's successes at Arcot; and he, therefore, did not
suffer Clive's operations to distract his attention here. Strong
reinforcements and a battering train were sent forward to the
besiegers; and, by repeated messages, he endeavoured to impress upon
Law and Chunda Sahib the necessity of pressing forward the capture of
Trichinopoli.
But Dupleix was unfortunate in his instruments. Law was always
hesitating and doubting. Chunda Sahib, although clever to plan, was
weak in action; indecisive, at moments when it was most necessary that
he should be firm. So then, in spite of the entreaties of Dupleix, he
had detached a considerable force to besiege Clive. Dupleix, seeing
this, and hoping that Clive might be detained at Arcot long enough to
allow of the siege of Trichinopoli being brought to a conclusion, had
sent the three hundred French soldiers to strengthen the force of Riza
Sahib.
He had still an overpowering force at Trichinopoli, Law having nine
hundred trained French soldiers, a park of fifty guns, two thousand
Sepoys, and the army of Chunda Sahib, twenty thousand strong. Inside
Trichinopoli were a few English soldiers under Captain Cope, and a
small body of troops of Muhammud Ali; while outside the walls, between
them and the besiegers, was the English force under Gingen, the men
utterly dispirited, the officer without talent, resolution, or
confidence.
Before leaving the troops with which he had won the battle of Arni,
Clive had expressed, to the two young writers, his high appreciation
of their conduct during the siege of Arcot; and promised them that he
would make it a personal request, to the authorities at Fort Saint
David, that they might be permanently transferred from the civil to
the military branch of the service; and such a request, made by him,
was certain to be complied with. He strongly advised them to spend
every available moment of their time in the study of the native
language; as, without that, they would be useless if appointed to
command a body of Sepoys.
Delighted at the prospect, now open to them, of a permanent relief
from the drudgery of a clerk's life in Madras, the young fellows were
in the highest spirits; and Tim Kelly was scarcely less pleased, when
he heard that Charlie was now likely to be always employed with him.
The boys lost not a moment in sending down to Madras, to engage the
services of a native "moonshee" or teacher. They wrote to their friend
Johnson, asking him to arrange terms with the man who understood most
English, and to engage him to remain with them some time.
A few days later, Tim Kelly came in.
"Plase, yer honors, there's a little shrivelled atomy of a man
outside, as wants to spake wid ye. He looks for all the world like a
monkey, wrapped up in white clothes, but he spakes English after a
fashion, and has brought this letter for you. The cratur scarce looks
like a human being, and I misdoubt me whether you had better let him
in."
"Nonsense, Tim," Charlie said, opening the letter; "it's the moonshee
we are expecting, from Madras. He has come to teach us the native
language."
"Moonshine, is it! By jabers, and it's a mighty poor compliment to the
moon to call him so. And is it the language you're going to larn now?
Shure, Mr. Charles, I wouldn't demane myself by larning the lingo of
these black hathens. Isn't for them to larn the English, and mighty
pleased they ought to be, to get themselves to spake like Christians."
"But who's going to teach them, Tim?"
"Oh, they larn fast enough," said Tim. "You've only got to point to a
bottle of water, or to the fire, or whatever else you want, and swear
at them, and they understand directly. I've tried it myself, over and
over again."
"There, Tim, it's no use standing talking any longer. Bring in the
moonshee."
From that moment, the little man had his permanent post in a corner of
the boys' room; and, when they were not on duty, they were constantly
engaged in studying the language, writing down the names of every
object they came across and getting it by heart, and learning every
sentence, question, and answer which occurred to them as likely to be
useful.
As for Tim, he quite lost patience at this devotion to study on the
part of his master; who, he declared to his comrades, went on just as
if he intended to become a nigger and a hathen himself.
"It's just awful to hear him, Corporal M'Bean, jabbering away in that
foreign talk, with that little black monkey moonshine. The little
cratur a-twisting his shrivelled fingers about, that looks as if the
bones were coming through the skin. I wonder what the good father at
Blarney, where I come from, you know, Corporal, would say to sich
goings on. Faith, then, and if he were here, I'd buy a bottle of holy
water, and sprinkle it over the little hathen. I suspict he'd fly
straight up the chimney, when it touched him."
"My opinion of you, Tim Kelly," the corporal, who was a grave
Scotchman, said; "is that you're just a fule. Your master is a brave
young gentleman, and is a deal more sensible than most of them, who
spend all their time in drinking wine and playing cards. A knowledge
of the language is most useful. What would you do, yourself, if you
were to marry a native woman, and couldn't speak to her afterwards."
"The saints defind us!" Tim exclaimed; "and what put such an idea in
yer head, Corporal? It's nayther more nor less than an insult to
suppose that I, a dacent boy, and brought up under the teaching of
Father O'Shea, should marry a hathen black woman; and if you weren't
my suparior officer, corporal, I'd tach ye better manners."
Fortunately, at this moment Charlie's voice was heard, shouting for
his servant; and Tim was therefore saved from the breach of the peace,
which his indignation showed that he meditated.
December passed quietly; and then, in January, 1752, an insurrection
planned by Dupleix broke out. The governor of Pondicherry had been
suffering keenly from disappointments; which, as time went on, and his
entreaties and commands to Law to attack Trichinopoli were answered
only by excuses and reasons for delay, grew to despair; and he
resolved upon making another effort to occupy the attention of the man
in whom he already recognized a great rival, and to prevent his taking
steps for the relief of Trichinopoli. Law had over and over again
assured him that, in the course of a very few weeks, that place would
be driven by famine to surrender; and, as soon as Clive arrived at
Fort Saint David, Dupleix set about taking steps which would again
necessitate his return to the north, and so give to Law the time which
he asked for.
Supplies of money were sent to Riza Sahib, together with four hundred
French soldiers. These marched suddenly upon Punemalli and captured
it, seized again the fortified temple of Conjeveram, and from this
point threatened both Madras and Arcot.
Had this force possessed an active and determined commander, it could
undoubtedly have carried out Dupleix's instructions, captured Madras,
and inflicted a terrible blow upon the English. Fortunately, it had no
such head. It marched indeed against Madras, plundered and burnt the
factories, levied contributions, and obtained possession of everything
but the fort; where the civilians, and the few men who constituted the
garrison, daily expected to be attacked, in which case the place must
have fallen. This, however, the enemy never even attempted, contenting
themselves with ravaging the place outside the walls of the fort.
The little garrison of Arcot, two hundred men in all, were astonished
at the news; that the province, which they had thought completely
conquered, was again in flames; that the road to Madras was cut, by
the occupation of Conjeveram by the French; and that Madras itself
was, save the fort, in the hands of the enemy. The fort itself, they
knew, might easily be taken, as they were aware that it was defended
by only eighty men.
The change in the position was at once manifest, in the altered
attitude of the fickle population. The main body of the inhabitants of
Southern India were Hindoos, who had for centuries been ruled by
foreign masters. The Mohammedans from the north had been their
conquerors, and the countless wars which had taken place, to them
signified merely whether one family or another were to reign over
them. The sole desire was for peace and protection; and they,
therefore, ever inclined towards the side which seemed strongest.
Their sympathies were no stronger with their Mohammedan rulers than
with the French or English, and they only hoped that whatever power
was strongest might conquer; and that, after the hostilities were
over, their daily work might be conducted in peace, and their property
and possessions be enjoyed in security. The capture and defence of
Arcot, and the battle of Arni, had brought them to regard the English
as their final victors; and the signs of deep and even servile
respect, which greeted the conquerors wherever they went, and which
absolutely disgusted Charlie Marryat and his friend, were really
sincere marks of the welcome to masters who seemed able and willing to
maintain their rule over them.
With the news of the successes of Riza Sahib, all this changed. The
natives no longer bent to the ground, as the English passed them in
the streets. The country people, who had flocked in with their
products to the markets, absented themselves altogether, and the whole
population prepared to welcome the French as their new masters.
In the fort, the utmost vigilance was observed. The garrison laboured
to mend the breaches, and complete the preparations for defence.
Provisions were again stored up, and they awaited anxiously news from
Clive.
That enterprising officer was at Fort Saint David, busy in making his
preparations for a decisive campaign against the enemy round
Trichinopoli, when the news of the rising reached him. He was
expecting a considerable number of fresh troops from England, as it
was in January that the majority of the reinforcements despatched by
the Company arrived in India; and Mr. Saunders had written to
Calcutta, begging that a hundred men might be sent thence. These were
now, with the eighty men at Madras, and the two hundred at Arcot, all
the force that could be at his disposal, for at Fort Saint David there
was not a single available man.
With all the efforts that Clive, aided by the authorities, could make,
it was not until the middle of February that he had completed his
arrangements. On the 9th, the hundred men arrived from Bengal, and,
without the loss of a day, Clive started from Madras to form a
junction with the garrison from Arcot, who, leaving only a small force
to hold the fort, had moved down to meet him.