om the French
to join them against us; I should be sorry, at a time when
I am so happy in his Excellency's favour and friendship, that
I should do any injury to his servants; I am therefore to
desire you will send these forces an order to withdraw, and
that no other may come to their assistance."[37]

What Clive feared was that, though the
Nawab might not interfere openly, some of his
servants might receive secret orders to do so, and
on the 22nd of March he wrote even more curtly
to Rai Durlabh himself:--

"I hear you are arrived within 20 miles of Hughly.
Whether you come as a friend or an enemy, I know not. If
as the latter, say so at once, and I will send some people out
to fight you immediately.... Now you know my mind."[38]

When diplomatic correspondence was conducted in letters of this
kind, it is easy to understand that the Nawab was frightened out of
his wits, and absolutely unable to decide what course he should
take. There was little likelihood of the siege being influenced by
anything he might do.

The outpost mentioned as the object of the first attack was a small
earthwork, erected at the meeting of three roads. It was covered by
the Moorish troops, who held the roofs of the houses around. As the
intention of the outposts was merely to prevent the town from being
surprised, and to enable the inhabitants to take shelter in the
Fort, the outpost ought to have been withdrawn as quickly as
possible, but, probably because they thought it a point of honour
to make a stout defence wherever they were first attacked,
the defenders stood to it gallantly. Renault sent repeated
reinforcements, first the company of grenadiers, then at 9 o'clock
the company of artillery, and at 10 o'clock, when the surrounding
houses were in flames, and many of the Moors had fled, a company of
volunteers. With these, and a further reinforcement of sixty
sailors, the little fort held out till 7 o'clock in the evening,
when the English, after three fruitless assaults, ceased fire and
withdrew. Street fighting is always confusing, and hence the
following vague description of the day's events from Captain Eyre
Coote's journal:--

"Colonel Clive ordered the picquets, with the company's
grenadiers, to march into the French bounds, which is encompassed
with an old ditch,[39] the entrance into it a gateway
with embrasures on the top but no cannons, which the
French evacuated on our people's advancing. As s