, others scarcely understood what was happening, Clive's clear
head and ready judgment grasped the situation at once.

"Gentlemen," he said calmly, "there is no firing going on in the
direction of the Great Pagoda. Follow me there at once."

Snatching up their arms, the officers followed him at a run. The whole
village was a scene of wild confusion. The firing round the pagoda and
caravansary were continuous. The Mahratta horsemen were climbing into
their saddles, and riding away out into the plain; the Sepoys were
running hither and thither.

At the pagoda he found the soldiers turning out under arms, and Clive,
ordering his officers to do their best to rally the native troops in
good order against the enemy, at once moved forward towards the
caravansary, with two hundred English troops. On arriving there, he
found a large body of Sepoys firing away at random. Believing them to
be his own men, for the French and English Sepoys were alike dressed
in white, he halted the English a few yards from them, and rushed
among them, upbraiding them for their panic, striking them, and
ordering them instantly to cease firing, and to form in order.

One of the Sepoy officers recognized Clive to be an Englishman, struck
at him, and wounded him with his sword. Clive, still believing him to
be one of his own men, was furious at what he considered an act of
insolent insubordination; and, seizing him, dragged him across to the
Small Pagoda to hand him over, as he supposed, to the guard there. To
his astonishment he found six Frenchmen at the gate, and these at once
summoned him to surrender.

Great as was his surprise, he did not for a moment lose coolness, and
at once told them that he had come to beg them to lay down their arms,
that they were surrounded by his whole army, and that, unless they
surrendered, his troops would give no quarter. So impressed were the
Frenchmen with the firmness of the speaker that three of them at once
surrendered, while the other three ran into the temple to inform their
commander.

Clive took the three men who had surrendered, and returned to the
English troops he had left near the caravansary. The French Sepoys had
discovered that the English were enemies, and had moved quietly off.

Confusion still reigned. Clive did not imagine, for a moment, that so
daring an assault could have been made on his camp by a small body of
enemies, and expected every moment an attack by Law's whole force. The
comma