The artillery consisted of eight six-pounders and two small
howitzers.

[Footnote 1: Vide Broome's _History of the Bengal Army_, p. 137.]

{91}The day after the force had set out Clive despatched to the
Subahdar a communication tantamount to a declaration of war; and he
proceeded, as he approached the enemy's camp, to act as though such a
declaration had been accepted. On the 16th he reached Palti, a town
on the western bank of the Kasimbazar river about six miles above its
junction with the Jalangi. Twelve miles higher up he came within
striking distance of Katwa, the Governor of which was supposed to be
one of the conspirators. Clive, expecting that the opposition would
not be serious, despatched to occupy it, on the 17th, 200 Europeans
and 500 sipahis, under Major Eyre Coote. But either the Governor had
changed his mind or he had only feigned compliance, for he prepared
to resist Coote's attack. Coote at once made preparations for an
assault, and took such dispositions, that the garrison, recognizing
the futility of resistance, and fearing to be cut off, evacuated the
place, leaving large supplies in the hands of the victors.

The next day, the 18th, a terrific storm raging, the force halted.
The day following, Clive, who had committed himself to the enterprise
mainly on the conviction that Mir Jafar would support him, received a
letter from that nobleman, informing him that he had feigned
reconciliation with the Subahdar and had taken an oath not to assist
the English, but adding that 'the purport of his convention with them
must be carried into execution.' This strange letter from the man
upon whose co-operation he particularly {92}depended led Clive to
doubt whether, after all, Mir Jafar might not betray him. Under this
possibility, the sense of the extreme danger of the enterprise in
which he was engaged revealed itself to him more clearly than it had
ever presented itself before. To cross an unfordable river in the
face of a vastly superior enemy, at a distance of 150 miles from all
support, would, he felt, be a most hazardous undertaking. Should Mir
Jafar be faithless to him, as he had appeared to be to his master,
and should the English force be defeated, there would scarcely
survive a man to tell the tale. Again would Calcutta be in
jeopardy--this time probably beyond redemption. Under the influence
of such thoughts he resolved not to cross the river until he should
receive from Mir Jafar more definite ass