CALCUTTA: PAST AND PRESENT
time on guard by playing cards and smoking. Taken by surprise the Mohammedans never doubted that Clive's army was upon them, and, crying to each other to save themselves, they fled precipitately, leaving the astonished soldier in possession of the fort. The story goes that the victor was reprimanded by Clive for being drunk and leaving camp, on which he exclaimed with an emphatic objurgation, that, if that was to be all the thanks he got, never again would he take a fort single-handed.
Clive's march was continued with little or no opposition, and on his reaching Calcutta, and Admiral Watson's ships sailing up at the same time to Fort William, the nawab's forces, comprising two thousand infantry and fifteen hundred cavalry, speedily retreated. On the 1st of January, 1757, the British flag was once more hoisted at Calcutta.
To punish the nawab and avenge the sack of Calcutta, the British, a few days later, advanced against Hughly, the centre of Mohammedan trade in Bengal, which town they captured and destroyed on the 10th of January. They then returned to Calcutta, and set about restoring order in the settlement, and preparing to meet Suraj-ud-Dowlah, who was collecting an immense army to march against them.
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