a civilian, entrust the remainder to the charge of a young man, untrained in war, for the purpose of invading a province containing 1,500,000 inhabitants? It was to take upon his shoulders an enormous responsibility. To the lasting honour of Saunders, to the lasting advantage of his country, he did not shrink from that responsibility. By his orders, then, Clive set out from Madras, the 26th of August, 1751, with a force of 200 Englishmen, 300 sipáhis, and three small guns, to invade the province of North Arcot.
It would be foreign to the design of this book to relate the details of the wonderful march of Clive. It must suffice to state that he executed to the letter the plans which had suggested themselves to his daring mind. He captured Arcot, the capital of the Karnátik, and held it for fifty days against an army enormously out-numbering his own scanty levies alike in Europeans and natives. Not content with that, no sooner had he recognised that the siege had been raised, than he sallied forth in pursuit of the whilom besiegers, found them at Ární, attacked, and completely defeated them. Thence, having struck a blow which was felt throughout Southern India, he returned by way of Madras to Fort St. David, to concert further measures with Mr. Saunders.
Of all those who had felt the blow struck by the young Englishman, no one had realised its force so keenly as Dupleix. But it was the glory of that illustrious man that difficulties only incited him to prompt and energetic action. Reading, as clearly as
