s, the time which followed would have been full
of satisfaction. For I was now to witness the closing acts of that
great historic drama of which I have already chronicled the
commencement. I was to assist at the execution of justice on a great
malefactor, and to see his victims repaid a hundredfold for the
injuries they had suffered at his hands.

I had arrived in the English camp just in time to take part in the
first of those celebrated operations by which the disgraceful
surrender of Fort William was to be redeemed, and the English name was
to be so signally advanced throughout the East Indies. Colonel Clive
had despatched the letter he spoke of, to demand redress from the
Nabob, but its language was so high and peremptory that Monichund, the
Nabob's governor in Fort William, returned it, saying that he dared
not transmit it to his master. Thereupon Mr. Clive, not sorry to have
an excuse for hostilities, ordered an immediate advance on Calcutta.

The total number of troops employed on this memorable expedition was
a little more than two thousand, of whom the most part were Telingies,
or Sepoys, the English troops being between six and seven hundred.
Most of these were Company's soldiers, though we had about one hundred
men of Adlercron's regiment from Madras. We had also two field-pieces;
the rest had been lost through the unfortunate grounding of the
_Cumberland_ outside the river. To this force was afterwards added a
body of three hundred seamen from the ships, as I shall presently
relate. This little army under Colonel Clive marched slowly up the
bank of the Hooghley, while Admiral Watson followed and escorted us
with his fleet.

On the second afternoon we lay at a place called Mayapore, between
which and Calcutta, on the river's edge, stood the strong place of
Budge-Budge, or Buz-Buzia as it is written by the learned. The Admiral
had announced his intention of sailing up to attack this fort on the
next day with the guns of the ships, and in order to prevent the
garrison escaping Mr. Clive decided to march round during the night,
and lay an ambush in the rear of the fort.

Accordingly we marched out of Mayapore about sunset, and were
conducted by some Indian guides inland through a part of the country
much broken up by swamps and watercourses, which made our progress so
excessively tedious that it was not till the following sunrise that we
arrived at the place appointed for the ambush. This was a hollow in
th