tlement,
which the Madras council proposed to assume pending orders from home,
was intrusted to the survivors of the Bengal Council, the leaders of
which had so shamefully deserted their posts; while Aldercron, on being
informed that Clive was to exercise the military command, actually went
so far as to disembark the greater part of his regiment, together with
guns and stores which had already been put on board ship, allowing only
two hundred fifty men to remain, who were to serve as marines under
Watson.

The delay was unfortunate; for before the squadron sailed the northeast
monsoon had set in, and in consequence none of the ships reached the
Hugli until the middle of December, and even then two of the largest
ships were missing; the Marlborough, with most of the artillery, and
the Cumberland, with Admiral Pocock and two hundred fifty English
soldiers, having failed to make their way against the monsoon. Clive's
orders were to recapture Calcutta, to attack the Nawab at his capital,
Murshidabad, and, in the event of war between England and France being
declared, to capture the French settlement of Chandernagor
(Chandranagar). When the expedition reached the Hugli, Clive wished the
men under his command to be taken on in the ships as far as Budge Budge
(Bajbaj)--a fortified place about ten miles from Calcutta, which it was
necessary to capture; but Watson, with his habitual perversity, insisted
upon the troops being landed at Mayapur, some miles farther down, thus
obliging them to make a most fatiguing night march through a swampy
country covered with jungle. The result was that they reached Budge
Budge in an exhausted condition, and being surprised by the Nawab's
troops shortly after their arrival, had a very narrow escape from
destruction, which was averted only by Clive's presence of mind and
readiness of resource.

Clive says, in a letter to Pigot, reporting this affair a few days
afterward: "You must know our march from Mayapur to the northward of
Budge Budge was much against my inclinations. I applied to the admiral
for boats to land us at the place we arrived at after sixteen hours'
march by land. The men suffered hardships not easily to be described; it
was four in the afternoon when we decamped from Mayapur, and we did not
arrive off Budge Budge until past eight the next morning. At nine the
Grenadier company and all the Sepoys were despatched to the fort, where
I heard Captain Coote was landed with the King'