[Sidenote: 1755.]
It is now time to return to the subject of India, which, as will
be remembered, was dropped at the conclusion of the truce between
France and England in January 1755. Two days after the signing of
the articles, Governor Saunders left Madras for Europe, and was
followed a month later by M. Godeheu. It is not likely that the
departure of the two signatories of the treaty wrought any great
influence on the subsequent proceedings of the East India Company;
but certain it is that before the instrument was a month old the
infraction of its provisions was already begun. It was in fact
impossible to observe the truce. Its object seems to have been to
terminate hostilities in the Carnatic alone; but it was not to
be expected that, while Bussy was exerting his vast ability and
energy at Aurungabad for the promotion of French interests, the
British could sit with folded hands in submission to the article
which bound French and English alike "not to interfere in any
difference which might arise between the princes of the country."
The British had their puppet as well as the French, and having
used him for their own purposes could not suddenly desert him, the
less so inasmuch as the Nabob Mohammed Ali had neither resources
of his own nor the wits whereby to provide himself with them.
When therefore Mohammed Ali begged for a British force to reduce
Madura and Tinnevelly, which he conceived to be his tributaries,
and to collect his tribute for him, the authorities at Madras
assented without hesitation. It was, in fact, unusual, not to say
impossible, for Indian tribute to be levied except by means of an
armed force; and, since Mohammed Ali had no troops of his own, it
might be maintained, at least with some show of reason, that the
furnishing of a small army for so innocent a purpose was not an act
of war.
[Sidenote: February.]
Accordingly at the beginning of February twenty-five hundred men,
one-fifth of them Europeans, were placed under command of Colonel
Heron, an officer lately arrived from England, who proceeded to
perform the duty assigned to him. It is unnecessary to enter into
details of his operations. Suffice it that he succeeded not only
in occupying both Madura and Tinnevelly, but in demoralising
his troops and insulting the religious prejudices of the people
by scandalous pillage of a pagoda. Mohammed Ali made over the
government of the subdued territory to his brother Maphuze
Khan, and in June Heron, having done his work, encamped before
Trichinopoly. From thence he was summoned to Madras to be tried by
court-martial for accepting bribes and for malversation of funds,
and was dismissed from the Company's service.
The French lost no time in protesting against this expedition as
a violation of the treaty, and with not the less vigour that they
were extremely jealous of the reuniting of Madura and Tinnevelly,
which had long been severed from the sway of Arcot, to the
dominions of Mohammed Ali. The protest was of course answered by
indignant disclaimer of any sinister purpose; and M. de Leyrit,
the Governor of Pondicherry, thought it more profitable to waste
no further words in argument, but simply to follow the British
example. An opportunity for doing so soon presented itself. The
chieftain of a tract of country known as Terriore, about thirty
miles north of Trichinopoly, had for some time past evaded payment
of his tributary dues to Mysore. Now the Mysoreans on retiring from
Trichinopoly had appointed the French their agents to watch over
their interests in the Carnatic; and M. de Leyrit accordingly
sent fifteen hundred men under M. Maissin into Terriore to enforce
discharge of the arrears of this revenue. Maissin having fulfilled
his mission with ease and success led his army eastward to
Palamcotah, on territory which the British claimed to be subject
to Mohammed Ali. The authorities at Madras threatened to stop him
by force if he did not desist; and, De Leyrit giving way, war was
for the present averted. But since both sides had now infringed the
treaty, it was plain that the renewal of hostilities could not long
be deferred.
[Sidenote: 1756.]
The rest of the year passed away without serious trouble; but,
however the suspension of arms might be observed in the south,
there could be no safety for the Carnatic while Bussy remained
at Aurungabad, virtually viceroy of the Deccan. He had been now
installed therein since 1751, wielding his great powers with
consummate tact and address in the face of intrigue, jealousy, and
even conspiracy; nay, he had turned the most formidable of the
combinations against him into a means of increasing his influence
and of gaining nearly five hundred miles of the eastern coast,
from the Chilka Lake southward, for the government of Pondicherry.
It is true that this vast tract, which was known as the Northern
Sirkars, had for the most part been restored to its native owners
under the terms of the treaty, but it was still held by France
pending the ratification of the articles, which was not expected
to arrive until the middle of 1756; and it was always possible
that so degrading a concession might be repudiated at Versailles.
Moreover, whatever the fate of the negotiations, the cardinal fact
remained that Bussy continued always at the court of the Viceroy
of the Deccan, and that it was vital to the British that his
power should be undermined--that, in fact, Salabad Jung should be
persuaded or forced to dismiss him. The first idea at Madras was
to send a force to the assistance of the Mahratta, Balajee Rao,
who had frequently carried on hostilities against Salabad Jung;
for which duty Clive, who had returned to India with the rank of
Lieutenant-Colonel and Governor of Fort St. David, volunteered his
services. Another officer, however, was preferred to him, who died
before the work could be begun; and the authorities at Bombay,
from which side the operations were to be conducted, allowed the
project to drop. Native intrigue nevertheless wrought effectually
for the British what they could not do for themselves; and in May
the feeble Salabad Jung was prevailed upon to dismiss Bussy and
the French troops from his service. But Bussy had still an army
with him, and had shown himself not less formidable in the field
than in the council-chamber; so his enemies, to decide the matter,
applied to Madras for a body of troops to assist in the expulsion
of the French. No invitation could have been more pleasing. A force
of eighteen hundred men was at once ordered for the service, when
in the middle of July came tidings from Bengal which demanded the
presence of every British soldier that could be spared from the
coast of Coromandel.
[Sidenote: May.]
[Sidenote: May 9.]
[Sidenote: June.]
The provinces of Bengal, Orissa, and Behar had since 1735 been
governed by a prince known to the English as Allaverdy Khan,
who, like all other viceroys of the Moguls, had become virtually
independent. At his death the sovereignty descended, according to
his own nomination, to his great nephew Surajah Dowlah, a youth who
had early discovered propensities towards cruelty, intemperance,
and debauchery such as are rare even in Oriental despots. Surajah
Dowlah had always hated the English, and his hatred was not
lessened after his succession by the fact that the most formidable
of his competitors for the throne had received asylum and
permission to deposit his treasures and his family at Madras. At
the beginning of April the authorities at Calcutta received warning
that the renewal of war with France was inevitable, and accordingly
set about the repair of the fortifications of the settlement.
Surajah Dowlah, not only irritated but alarmed lest such
preparations should be levelled against himself, sent a message
to the Governor requiring that the work should cease and that
the newly-erected defences should be destroyed. The authorities
answered by tendering explanations; but the angry Nabob heard them
only to reject them, and ordered his army to march against the
fort and factory of Cossimbazar. The place was in no condition to
make any defence, and Surajah Dowlah having received its surrender
pursued his march upon Calcutta. There the authorities, uninured to
such trials as Madras, had weakly endeavoured to appease the wrath
of the Nabob by desisting from further work on the fortifications:
nor was it until too late that they discovered that their only
safety lay in resistance. Letters were hurriedly despatched to
Bombay and Madras for reinforcements, though with little hope
that these would reach Calcutta in time. Appeals for aid were
addressed also to the French at Chandernagore and to the Dutch at
Chinsura, but were rejected by both parties, and by the French in
particular with studied insolence. By the 16th of June the Nabob's
army was before the city. Fort William, the principal defence, was
abandoned as untenable, and the British resolved to confine their
resistance to the streets. On the 18th the enemy attacked and were
gallantly beaten back; but on the 19th they succeeded in carrying
the principal batteries: and it was then determined, while there
was yet time, to embark the women and children on the shipping in
the Hooghly. The resolution was executed with a haste and disorder
which soon turned to panic, and there was a general rush to escape.
The Governor, who so far had shown firmness and courage, embarked
with the rest, and the scanty remnant of Europeans left behind in
Calcutta was compelled to capitulate. The tragedy that ensued is
well known--how one hundred and forty-six Europeans were packed
during the insufferable heat of a summer's night into a room not
twenty feet square and with but two small windows; how the unhappy
creatures strove for a time to fight with order and discipline
against suffocation; how the effort proved, as it could not but
prove, beyond their powers, and gave place to a succession of mad
struggles for life, renewed and renewed again through hour after
hour till at length they were closed by the slow mercy of death;
and how when the corpses were cleared away from the door in the
morning thirty-three ghastly figures staggered out from among them
to tell to their countrymen the tale of the Black Hole of Calcutta.
[Sidenote: July.]
The Nabob then occupied himself with the plunder of the city and
in writing inflated accounts of his conquest to Delhi; which done
he left a garrison of three thousand men in Calcutta and departed
with his army on the 2nd of July. On his way he extorted large
contributions from Chandernagore and Chinsura as the price of their
immunity, and so returned to his capital of Moorshedebad.
[Sidenote: July 20.]
[Sidenote: August.]
[Sidenote: December.]
It was not until the 15th of July that the news of the fall of
Cossimbazar reached Madras. Two hundred and thirty Europeans under
Major Kilpatrick were promptly shipped off to the Hooghly, and
arrived at Fulta, five-and-twenty miles below Calcutta, on the 2nd
of August. But there was long hesitation as to the expediency of
sending further reinforcements to Bengal. News was daily expected
of declaration of war with France, and it was held by many of the
Council that it would be wiser policy to send aid to Salabad Jung
and to complete the discomfiture of Bussy while there was yet time.
Fortunately wider and less selfish views prevailed, and ultimately
it was decided to send every ship and man that could be spared
to the Hooghly. There was still longer debate over the selection
of a commander, but the choice finally fell upon Clive, though
he was subordinated to Admiral Watson, who commanded the British
squadron then lying at Madras. The force entrusted to him consisted
of nine hundred Europeans, two hundred and fifty of which were of
the Thirty-ninth regiment, and fifteen hundred Sepoys. Thus at
last on the 15th of October the transports sailed under convoy of
Admiral Watson's four ships of the line, though, owing to divers
misfortunes, it was Christmas before the bulk of the fleet arrived
at Fulta. Even then two ships, the one containing two hundred
European troops, the other the great part of the field-artillery,
were still missing.
[Sidenote: Dec. 29.]
Even more discouraging was the condition of Kilpatrick's detachment
which, being perforce encamped on unhealthy ground, had buried over
one hundred men and could supply but thirty that were fit for duty.
Still there was nothing to be gained by delay, so on the 27th of
December the fleet sailed up the river and on the 29th anchored at
Mayapore, two miles below the fort of Budge Budge. Here, contrary
to Clive's opinion, Watson insisted that the troops should march
against the fort overland. Five hundred Europeans and the whole of
the Sepoys were accordingly disembarked, and after a most difficult
march arrived at the place appointed for camp, a large hollow
situated between two villages a mile and a half to north-east of
Budge Budge. The men being greatly fatigued were permitted to
leave their arms in the hollow and to lay themselves down wherever
they thought best; and with inexcusable neglect not a sentry was
posted. It so happened that Monichund, the officer left by Surajah
Dowlah at Calcutta, had that very day reached Budge Budge with
thirty-five hundred men, where on receiving intelligence of Clive's
dispositions he laid his plans to attack him at nightfall. The
British troops had not been long asleep when they were awaked by
the fire of musketry and found the enemy upon them. Instantly they
rushed to the hollow for their arms, the artillerymen deserting
their guns and flying back with the infantry to take shelter.
Clive, always cool and collected, called to his men to stand,
knowing that the slightest retrograde movement would produce a
panic, and detached two platoons from two different points to make
a counter-attack. The British then recovered themselves, the
artillerymen returned to their guns, and Clive was able to form his
line in order for a general advance. Before the action could become
general a round shot passing close to Monichund's turban caused
that officer to give a hasty signal for retreat; and so Clive's
army was saved, though, indeed, it was by no fault but his own that
it had been endangered. H.M.S. _Kent_ then sailed up and silenced
the guns of Budge Budge; and on the following night a drunken
sailor, who chanced to blunder into the fort, made the discovery
that it had been abandoned by the enemy.
[Sidenote: Dec. 30.]
[Sidenote: 1757.]
[Sidenote: Jan. 12.]
[Sidenote: Feb. 2.]
[Sidenote: Feb. 3.]
On the 30th the fleet pursued its way up to Alighur, where Clive
again landed with the army to march on Calcutta, while the ships
engaged the enemy at Fort William. The Nabob's troops soon deserted
both fort and town, and the fort was occupied, before Clive
could reach it, by a detachment under Captain Eyre Coote of the
Thirty-ninth Foot, who had sailed from England with two companies
of his regiment in the previous November. It was then resolved to
recapture Hooghly before the Nabob could advance from Moorshedabad;
and accordingly three hundred and fifty of the Thirty-ninth with a
due proportion of Sepoys were detached for the purpose, who took
the town by storm with trifling loss and a week later returned to
Calcutta. Meanwhile news arrived of the outbreak of war between
France and England; and the Company fearing lest the French troops
at Chandernagore, who numbered three hundred Europeans with a train
of artillery, might join the Nabob, endeavoured to come to terms
with him. The attempt was vain. Surajah Dowlah, irritated by the
attack on Hooghly, collected an army of forty thousand men and
moved steadily upon Calcutta. On the 2nd of February his advanced
guard came into sight; whereupon Clive, who had taken up a position
at the northern end of the town, marched out as if to attack. He
decided, however, to wait for a more favourable moment; and on the
following day the whole of the Nabob's army was encamped along the
eastern side of the town, beside the entrenchment that bore the
name of the Mahratta Ditch.
[Sidenote: Feb. 4.]
Even then, though the French had not joined Surajah Dowlah, Clive
was loth to encounter his army without reinforcements, and made a
last effort at negotiation; but, on the return of his commissioners
without success, he decided to make an attempt upon the enemy's
camp on the morrow. At midnight six hundred sailors were landed
from the men-of-war, and with these, six hundred and fifty European
infantry, a hundred gunners with six guns, and eight hundred
Sepoys Clive started before dawn for the Nabob's encampment. His
advance was made in a long column of three men abreast, with the
artillery in rear; and day had just broken when he struck against
the enemy's advanced posts and drove them back. With the coming of
the light there came also a dense fog, through which the column
continued to move forward, successfully repulsing an attack of the
enemy's cavalry as it went, until a causeway was reached, running
at right angles to the line of march, which led to the Nabob's
quarters within the Mahratta Ditch. There the head of the column
changed direction to the right, as it had been bidden, but in the
perplexity caused by the fog found itself under the fire of the
British field-guns in the rear, and broke up to seek shelter.
This movement misled the rear of the column; and very soon the
entire force was in hopeless confusion. The enemy opening fire
with their cannon increased the disorder; and Clive had much ado
to keep his men together. Finally when the fog lifted he found
himself surrounded by the enemy's cavalry; and though he succeeded
in driving them off he was obliged, owing to the fatigue of his
troops, to abandon the attack and return to camp. His losses
amounted to one hundred Europeans and fifty Sepoys killed and
wounded, against which there seemed little gain to be set. The men
indeed were not a little disheartened, and complained with some
bitterness of the rashness of their leader.
[Sidenote: Feb. 9.]
[Sidenote: March.]
[Sidenote: June 4.]
[Sidenote: June 13.]
But if the British were discouraged, much more so was the Nabob.
Blind and uncertain though the action had been, he had lost six
hundred men and five hundred horses, while the idea of a British
force calmly perambulating his camp was utterly distasteful and
disquieting to him. Five days later he concluded a treaty whereby
he agreed to restore all property taken at Calcutta and to revive
all other privileges formerly granted to the British; an agreement
which was expanded forty-eight hours afterwards into an offensive
and defensive alliance. Clive then proposed to attack the French
at Chandernagore, but this the Nabob positively forbade. In March,
however, reinforcements of three companies of infantry and one
of artillery arrived from Bombay, and Clive resolved to make the
attack notwithstanding the Nabob's prohibition. On the 7th of March
the army began its march up the river; the siege was opened a week
later, and the fort, which held no very strong garrison, was soon
forced to capitulate. This defiance of his wishes increased at
once the Nabob's dread of the British and his anxiety to evade the
obligations of the treaty. The miserable creature writhed under
the masterful spirit of Clive. He made overtures to Bussy, to the
Mahrattas, to any one whom he thought able to help him out of
his difficulties: sometimes he threatened the English, sometimes
he apologised to them; and Clive, thoroughly distrustful of this
abject ally, determined to keep the whole of his army in Bengal to
watch him and hold him to his obligations. Meanwhile aid suddenly
reached the British from an unexpected source. The followers of
the Nabob, alienated by his folly, his insults, and his caprice,
began to fall away from him. Discontent ripened into disaffection,
and disaffection into conspiracy. Overtures were presently made to
the authorities at Calcutta to join in a plot for the overthrow of
Surajah Dowlah and for the setting up of Meer Jaffier, hitherto
his commander-in-chief but now foremost among the conspirators, in
his place. Long negotiations followed, which have become famous
for the blot which, rightly or wrongly, they have left upon the
memory of Clive. Finally Meer Jaffier signed the treaty which
bound the English to win for him the throne of Bengal, Orissa,
and Behar, and engaged himself in return to make over to them
all French factories within those provinces, as well as a slight
accession of territory about Calcutta, and to give compensation for
the damage inflicted by Surajah Dowlah. Meer Jaffier, however, had
displayed considerable irresolution during the negotiations, and
the secret of the conspiracy had already begun to leak out, so that
it became necessary to clench the arrangement by immediate action.
Accordingly on the 13th of June, Clive, who had been throughout
the leading and deciding spirit, set his force in motion from
Chandernagore upon Moorshedabad, and on the following day sent a
letter to the Nabob which amounted virtually to a declaration of
war.
Before the letter arrived Surajah Dowlah had awaked to his peril
and sent emissaries to treat with Meer Jaffier; nay, throwing off
all royal state he visited his former vassal in person to entreat
humbly for reconciliation. Meer Jaffier yielded; the agreement
between the two men was ratified by the usual oaths on the Koran;
and Surajah Dowlah, returning a defiant answer to Clive, ordered
the whole of his army to assemble some twelve miles due south of
Moorshedabad at the village of Plassey.
[Sidenote: June.]
Meanwhile Clive continued his advance up the Hooghly, the Europeans
travelling by water in boats, the Sepoys marching along the western
bank. His force consisted in all of nine hundred Europeans, two
hundred half-bred Portuguese and twenty-one hundred Sepoys, with
ten guns. On the 16th he halted at Paltee, on the Cossimbazar river
above its junction with the Jelingeer, and sent forward Major Eyre
Coote to secure the fort of Cutwa, twelve miles farther up, which
commanded the passage of the river. The governor of the fort was
one of the conspirators against Surajah Dowlah, but he met Coote's
overtures with defiance, and on the deployment of the British
force for attack set fire to the defences and retired together
with his garrison. Clive's force encamped in the plain of Cutwa
that night; but the behaviour of the Governor was calculated to
disquiet him, for Meer Jaffier's letters only reported vaguely that
he himself, though reconciled to the Nabob, intended none the less
to abide by the treaty with the British. Distrusting so ambiguous
a declaration Clive decided not to cross the river into what was
called the Island of Cossimbazar,[341] until his doubts should be
resolved. On the 20th further letters arrived from Meer Jaffier
tending somewhat to allay Clive's misgivings as to his good faith,
but holding out little hope of assistance in the coming operations;
while simultaneously there came a letter from one of Clive's agents
which gave some reason for doubting Meer Jaffier's sincerity. Much
perplexed Clive summoned a council of war, and put it to the twenty
officers therein assembled whether it would be better to cross the
river and attack the Nabob at all hazards, or to halt at Cutwa,
where supplies were abundant, until the close of the rainy season,
and meanwhile to invoke the assistance of the Mahrattas. He gave
his own opinion first in favour of remaining at Cutwa, and was
followed by thirteen of the officers, including so bold a soldier
as Kilpatrick. Coote and six more, however, gave their votes for
immediate action or return to Calcutta. Clive broke up the council,
retired alone into an adjoining grove for an hour, and on his
return issued orders to cross the river on the morrow.
[Sidenote: June 23.]
At sunrise of the 22nd the army began the passage of the river,
and by four in the afternoon it stood on the eastern bank. Here
another letter reached Clive from Meer Jaffier, giving information
as to the intended movements of the Nabob. Clive's answer was that
he should advance to Plassey at once, and on the following morning
to Daoodpoor, six miles beyond it; and that if Meer Jaffier failed
to meet him there, he would make peace with Surajah Dowlah. The
troops accordingly proceeded on their way, Europeans by water,
Sepoys by land; but owing to the slow progress of the boats against
the stream, it was one o'clock in the morning before they had
traversed the fifteen miles to the village of Plassey. Here they
were surprised to learn from the continued din of drums and cymbals
that the Nabob's army was close at hand; for they had expected to
meet with it farther north. Solaced by this rude music the men lay
down in a mango-grove to sleep; but the officers that slept were
few, and Clive was not one of them.
The grove of Plassey extended north and south for a length of
about half a mile, with a width of about three hundred yards. The
trees were planted in regular rows, and the whole was surrounded
by a slight bank and by a ditch beyond it, choked with weeds
and brambles. The grove lay at an acute angle to the river, the
northern corner being fifty yards and the southern two hundred
yards from the bank. A little to the northward of it and on the
edge of the river stood a hunting-house of the Nabob, surrounded
by a garden and wall. A mile to northward of this house the river
makes a huge bend to the south-west in the form of a horse-shoe,
containing a peninsula of about a mile in diameter, which shrinks
at its neck to a width of some five hundred yards from stream to
stream. About three hundred yards to south of this peninsula an
entrenchment had been thrown up, which ran for above a furlong
straight inland and parallel to the grove, and then turned off at
an obtuse angle to the north-eastward for about three miles. The
whole of the Nabob's army was encamped within this entrenchment
and the peninsula, and the angle itself was defended by a redoubt.
Some three hundred yards to the east of the redoubt, but outside
the entrenchment, stood a hillock covered with trees; half a mile
to southward of this hillock lay a small tank, and yet a hundred
yards farther south a second and much larger tank, both of them
surrounded by a mound of earth.
At dawn the Nabob's forces began to stream by many outlets from the
camp towards the grove, a mighty host of thirty-five thousand foot,
eighteen thousand horse, and fifty pieces of artillery. The cannon
were for the most part of large calibre and were carried, together
with their crews and ammunition, on large stages, which were tugged
by forty or fifty yoke of oxen in front and propelled by elephants
from behind. Forty or fifty French adventurers under M. St. Frais,
who had formerly been of the garrison of Chandernagore, took post
with four light field-guns at the larger tank, which was nearest to
the grove; while two heavy guns under a native officer were posted
to St. Frais's right and between him and the river. In support of
these advanced parties were five thousand horse and seven thousand
foot under the Nabob's most faithful general, Meer Murdeen. The
rest of the hostile army extended itself in a huge curve from the
hillock before the entrenchments to within half a mile of the
southern angle of the grove. Thus the British could not advance
against the force in their front without exposing themselves to
overwhelming attack on their right flank.
Clive watched these dispositions from the hunting-house, and was
surprised at the numbers and confidence of the enemy. But knowing
that his only chance was to assume a bold face, he drew his troops
out of the grove and formed them in a single line, with their
left resting on the hunting-house and their front towards the
nearest tank. The European battalion occupied the centre of the
line. It mustered on that day about seven hundred men, partly of
the Company's troops, since numbered the Hundred and First to the
Hundred and Third Regiments, and partly of the Thirty-ninth Foot,
while one hundred half-bred Portuguese also were ranked within it.
Three six-pounders were posted on each flank of this battalion,
manned by fifty men of the Royal Artillery and as many seamen; and
to right and left of these guns, twenty-one hundred Sepoys were
drawn up in two equal divisions. The line extended for six hundred
yards beyond the grove, but the enemy at this point was too remote
to fall upon the British flank before dispositions could be made
to meet them. Two more field-guns and two howitzers were posted
two hundred yards in advance of the left division of Sepoys, under
shelter of two brick-kilns. Therewith Clive's order of battle was
complete; and the handful of three thousand men stood up to meet
its fifty thousand enemies. Its strength lay in the group of white
faces in the centre, and the strength of that group lay in the will
of one man. It was the first time that British troops had faced
such odds; but it was not to be the last.
At eight o'clock the action was opened by the firing of one of
the French guns at the tank. The shot fell true, killing one man
and wounding another of the British grenadier-company. Then the
whole of the enemy's guns, from the tanks in front along the whole
vast sweep of the curving line, opened a heavy and continuous
fire. The British guns replied and with effect, but the loss of
one of Clive's soldiers was ill compensated for by the fall of
ten of the enemy; and after losing thirty men in the first half
hour of the cannonade Clive ordered the whole of his force to fall
back into the grove. So the little band of scarlet faced about,
passed into the trees and vanished from sight; while wild yells
of elation rose up from the enemies that ringed them about, and
their whole line closing in nearer upon the grove renewed the
cannonade with redoubled energy. The shot, however, did little
damage, for the British had been ordered to lie down; and Clive's
field-guns, firing through embrasures made in the bank, wrought
greater destruction, at the closer range, than before. So the duel
of artillery continued until eleven o'clock, when Clive called a
council of officers, and decided that it would be best to maintain
the position until nightfall, and at midnight to take the offensive
and attack the enemy's camp.
Then by chance nature interposed, as at Créçy, to change the whole
aspect of the fight. A heavy storm of rain swept over the plain,
drenching both armies to the skin. The British had tarpaulins
ready to cover their ammunition; but the enemy had taken no such
precaution, and consequently most of their powder was damaged.
Their fire began to slacken, while that of the British was as
lively as ever. Nevertheless, believing that his adversary must
be in the same predicament as himself, Meer Murdeen advanced
from the tank towards the grove to drive the British from it.
His troops were met by a deadly fire of grape, his cavalry was
dispersed and he himself mortally wounded. The news of his fall
shattered the shaken nerves of the unhappy Nabob, and in abject
despair he sent for Meer Jaffier and besought earnestly for his
help. He, the sovereign, flung his turban at the feet of his
subject and cried, "Jaffier, that turban you must defend." And
Jaffier, with the readiness of submissive gesture which graces
Oriental duplicity, bowed his head and laid his hands upon his
breast, swearing to render his utmost service. Then returning
to his fellow-conspirators he forthwith despatched a letter to
Clive, advising him to push forward at once, or at all events to
attack the Nabob before next dawn. The messenger was afraid to
deliver the letter while the fire continued; but Surajah Dowlah, as
though aware that no faithful counsellor was left to him, turned
to another of his leaders for help. This man, being also of the
conspirators, advised him to order the army to fall back within
the entrenchment and himself to retire to the capital, leaving
the issue of the fight to his Generals. The wretched Nabob acted
on this counsel, and mounting a camel set forth with an escort of
two thousand horse for Moorshedabad. Thus it was that at about two
o'clock the enemy's fire ceased, the teams were harnessed to the
guns, and the whole host turning about flowed back slowly towards
the entrenchments.
While all this was going forward, Clive, having resolved to make no
offensive movement before night, had retired to the hunting-house
to snatch a few minutes of sleep after the anxiety and fatigue of
the previous day. He was roused by a message from Major Kilpatrick
which brought him back speedily into the field. Despite the
withdrawal of the Nabob's army St. Frais and his little party
still held their position in the tank, and Kilpatrick, perceiving
that the position was one from which the enemy's flank could be
cannonaded during their retreat, sent word to Clive that he was
about to attack it. Clive, waked abruptly from sleep, sharply
reprimanded Kilpatrick for taking such a step without orders; but
presently seeing that the Major was right, he took command of his
two companies, and sending Kilpatrick to bring forward the rest of
the army, himself led the advance against the tank.
St. Frais, aware that he could hold his ground no longer, thereupon
limbered up, and retiring with perfect coolness to the redoubt at
the angle of the entrenchment, made ready for action once more.
Meanwhile, during the advance of the British, the southernmost
division of the Nabob's army was observed to be holding aloof
from the rest of the host and approaching nearer to the grove.
These were the troops of Meer Jaffier, but their movement was
misconstrued as a design upon the boats and baggage in the grove;
and accordingly three platoons and a field-gun were detached to
hold them in check. The division therefore retired slowly, but
still remained significantly apart from the remainder of the host.
But before this, the main body of the British had reached the
tank, and planting their artillery on the mound opened fire on the
enemy behind their entrenchments. Thereupon many of the Nabob's
troops faced about again and moved out into the plain to meet them;
the infantry opening a heavy fire, while the artillery likewise
wheeled about to enter the fight anew. In effect it was at this
moment that the true battle began, though the Nabob's force was
by this time without leader or general. Clive perceived that his
only chance was to press his attack home before the resistance to
him could assume any organised form. He therefore pushed forward
half of his infantry and artillery to the lesser tank, and the
remainder to some rising ground a furlong to the left of it, at
the same time detaching a hundred and fifty men to occupy a tank
close to the entrenchments and to keep up a fire of musketry upon
them. From these stations the firing was renewed at closer range
than before and with admirable efficiency. The enemy suffered great
loss, and the teams attached to their heavy artillery were so much
cut up that the guns could not be brought into action. Nevertheless
St. Frais's field-pieces at the redoubt were still well and
regularly served; and the enemy, though lacking leadership, were
able, under favour of the ground and of their immense superiority
in numbers, to carry on the fight with some spirit in their own
irregular fashion. The entrenchments themselves, the hillock to
eastward of the redoubt, and every hollow or coign of vantage,
were crammed with matchlockmen, while the cavalry hovered round,
threatening continually to charge, though always kept at a distance
by the British artillery. At length it dawned upon Clive that the
isolated division of the Nabob's army by the grove must be that of
Meer Jaffier, and that his flank and rear were safe. He resolved
therefore to cut matters short. Two parties were detached to make
simultaneous attack upon the redoubt on one side and the hillock on
the other, while the main body moved up between them in support.
The hillock was carried without the firing of a shot, and St.
Frais, perceiving that he was now wholly unsupported, abandoned his
guns and retired. At five o'clock the British were in possession of
the Nabob's entrenchments and camp, and the battle of Plassey was
won.
From a military standpoint the action has comparatively little
interest, since the issue turned really on the good faith or, if
the term be preferred, the ill-faith of the leading conspirators
against Surajah Dowlah. The British could not advance until the
enemy retired; it was a shower of rain that silenced the Nabob's
artillery and began the discouragement which led to their retreat;
and even then the British commander needed to be waked out of sleep
to follow them. There were no such superb audacity of attack, no
such bloody struggle, no such triumph of discipline over numbers,
as were to be seen afterwards at Meeanee. The whole loss of the
British amounted to but seven Europeans and sixteen Sepoys killed,
thirteen Europeans and thirty-six Sepoys wounded. It was a small
price to pay for dominion over the provinces of Bengal, Orissa, and
Behar, for such and no less were the fruits of the victory. Yet it
is not by the mere tale of the slaughtered and the maimed that such
successes must be judged. The victory may have been easily won when
the moment came for the actual clash of arms; but the main point is
that the British were there to win it. The campaign of Plassey is
less a study of military skill than of the iron will and unshaken
nerve that could lead three thousand men against a host of unknown
strength, and hold them undaunted, a single slender line, within a
ring of fifty thousand enemies.
[Sidenote: June 24.]
[Sidenote: 1758.]
The day's work did not end with the capture of the camp. Eyre Coote
was sent forward with a detachment to keep the enemy moving, and
the army encamped for the night at Daoodpoor. On the following day
Meer Jaffier was saluted by Clive as Nabob of Bengal, Orissa, and
Behar, after which he hastened with his troops to Moorshedabad,
reaching the city on the same evening. Surajah Dowlah had fled
before his arrival, but parties were sent out at once in search of
him, and a few days later he was brought back and assassinated. On
the 29th Clive likewise entered the city and formally installed
Meer Jaffier on the throne. He then spent the succeeding months in
dividing the spoils of the victory, of which the troops received
no small share, and in securing that British interests should be
paramount in the new possessions, or, to use plain language, that
the Company should be the true sovereign and Meer Jaffier its
puppet. On this part of his task I shall for the present dwell no
further, except to mention that the agent selected by him to reside
at the Court of Meer Jaffier was a young man of five-and-twenty,
named Warren Hastings. The work was not fully accomplished for many
months, nor was it until the following May that Clive was able to
return to Calcutta, having left the greater number of his troops
at Cossimbazar to keep watch over Moorshedabad. A month before his
arrival events in Southern India had taken a ply which called for
the appointment of the ablest possible man as ruler of Bengal;
and in June Clive, at the request of the authorities at Calcutta,
assumed the office of President. Before long his hand will again be
seen busy in the direction of new conquests; but it is necessary
first to trace the course of events in Southern India.