es so irritated him, 'that he could
not forbear, on meeting Mr. Fordyce at Cuddalore, to reproach him
with his behaviour, which, he told him, was so injurious he could
bear it no longer, and thereupon struck him two or three times with
his cane, which, at last Mr. Fordyce returned and then closed in with
him, but that they were presently parted by Captain Lucas.'

The Board, in giving its judgement on the case, recapitulated the
many offences committed by Mr. Fordyce, the great provocation he had
given to Clive, and suspended him. With regard to Clive they
{15}recorded: 'lest the same,' the attack on Fordyce, 'should be to
Mr. Clive's prejudice, we think it not improper to assure you that he
is generally esteemed a very quiet person and no ways guilty of
disturbances.' It is to be inferred from this account that, far from
deserving the character popularly assigned to him, Clive, in the
third year of his residence in India, was regarded by his superiors
as a very quiet member of society.

Still, neither the climate nor the profession suited him. 'I have not
enjoyed,' he wrote to one of his cousins, 'a happy day since I left
my native country.' In other letters he showed how he repented
bitterly of having chosen a career so uncongenial. Gradually,
however, he realized the folly of kicking against the pricks. He
associated more freely with his colleagues, and when the Governor,
Mr. Morse, sympathizing with the young man eating out his heart from
ennui, opened to him the door of his considerable library, he found
some relief to his sufferings. These, at last, had reached their
term. Before Clive had exhausted all the books thus placed at his
disposal, events occurred which speedily opened to him the career for
which he had panted.

{16}

CHAPTER II
SOUTHERN INDIA IN 1744

It will contribute to the better understanding of the narrative of
the events which plunged the English into war in 1745, if we take a
bird's-eye view of the peninsula generally, particularly of the
southern portion, as it appeared in the year preceding.

Of India generally it is sufficient to say that from the year 1707,
when the Emperor Aurangzeb died, authority had been relaxing to an
extent which was rapidly bringing about the disruption of the bonds
that held society together. The invasion of Nadir Shah followed by
the sack of Delhi in 1739 had given the Mughal dynasty a blow from
which it never rallied. Thenceforward until 1761, when t