a Sahib had left Arcot, the capital of the Carnatic, to reduce
Trichinopoly, then held by a weak English battalion. Clive offered to
attack Arcot in order to force Chanda Sahib to raise the siege of
Trichinopoly. But Madras and Fort St David could supply him with only
200 Europeans and 300 sepoys. Of the eight officers who led them, four
were civilians like Clive himself, and six had never been in action. His
force had but three field-pieces. The circumstances that Clive, at the
head of this handful, had been seen marching during a storm of thunder
and lightning, frightened the enemy into evacuating the fort, which the
British at once began to strengthen against a siege. Clive treated the
great population of the city with so much consideration that they helped
him, not only to fortify his position, but to make successful sallies
against the enemy. As the days passed on, Chanda Sahib sent a large army
under his son and his French supporters, who entered Arcot and closely
besieged Clive in the citadel.

Macaulay gives the following brilliant account of the siege:--

"Raja Sahib proceeded to invest the fort, which seemed quite incapable
of sustaining a siege. The walls were ruinous, the ditches dry, the
ramparts too narrow to admit the guns, and the battlements too low to
protect the soldiers. The little garrison had been greatly reduced by
casualties. It now consisted of 120 Europeans and 200 sepoys. Only
four officers were left, the stock of provisions was scanty, and the
commander who had to conduct the defence under circumstances so
discouraging was a young man of five and twenty, who had been bred as
a book-keeper. During fifty days the siege went on, and the young
captain maintained the defence with a firmness, vigilance and ability
which would have done honour to the oldest marshal in Europe. The
breach, however, increased day by day. Under such circumstances, any
troops so scantily provided with officers might have been expected to
show signs of insubordination; and the danger was peculiarly' great in
a force composed of men differing widely from each other in
extraction, colour, language, manners and religion. But the devotion
of the little band to its chief surpassed anything that is related of
the Tenth Legion of Caesar, or the Old Guard of Napoleon. The sepoys
came to Clive, not to complain of their scanty fare, but to propose
that all the grain should be given to the Eur