g the manoeuvre I have described, Clive
had advanced to a position whence he could cannonade the enemy's
camp. The effect of this fire was to cause great loss and confusion
amongst the troops of the Subahdar, at the same time that the
English, giving, by their advance, their flank to the French in the
redoubt, suffered also. To put {104}an end to this cross-fire Clive
saw that the one remedy was to storm the redoubt. He was unwilling,
however, to risk his troops in a severe contest with the French so
long as the army corps, the movements of which I have described in
the preceding paragraph, should continue to occupy its apparently
threatening position. That corps might be the corps of Mir Jafar, but
there was no certainty that it was so, for Clive had not then
received Mir Jafar's letter, nor was he aware of the flight of the
Nawab. It was just at this critical moment that he observed the corps
in question making the retrograde movement I have referred to. Then
all doubt was over in his mind. It must, he was convinced, be the
corps of his adherent. Certain now that he would not be molested, he
hurled his troops against the redoubt and the hillock to the east of
it. St. Frais displayed a bold front, but, abandoned almost
immediately by his native allies, and deeming it wiser to preserve
his handful of Europeans for another occasion, he evacuated the
redoubt, leaving his field-pieces behind him. His resistance was the
last opposition offered to the English. The clocks struck five as he
fell back, thus tolling the memorable hour which gave to England the
richest province in India; which imposed upon her the necessity to
advance upwards from its basis until she should reach the rocky
region called with some show of reason the 'Glacis of the Fortress of
Hindustan.'

Just as the beaten and betrayed army was moving {105}off with its
impedimenta, its elephants, its camels, leaving to be scrambled for
an enormous mass of baggage, stores, cattle, and camp equipage, Clive
received messengers from Mir Jafar requesting an interview. Clive
replied by appointing a meeting for the morrow at Daudpur, a village
twenty miles to the south of Murshidabad. Thither the bulk of the
troops, their spirits cheered by the promise made them that they
would receive a liberal donation in money, marched that evening;
whilst a detachment under Eyre Coote went forward in pursuit, to
prevent the enemy from rallying. After a short halt, to enable the
co