t
midday, having been on the march for more than six hours, through the
midst of a great army.

Such was this extraordinary exploit, to which, as I am assured, a
parallel is scarcely to be found in the history of any age or nation.
Nevertheless, at the moment its effect was to cast a gloom over the
spirits of the troops. The officers, who could never forgive Colonel
Clive for not having been, like themselves, regularly bred to the
military profession, grumbled at and criticised his action, which they
described as that of a mere braggadocio, who knew nothing of war. The
fact was that the rules of war contained no prescription for the
conquest of an army of forty thousand men by one of barely two
thousand; and though the hero who led us was ever ready to attempt
impossibilities, he could not always perform them.

As soon as I had seen old Muzzy safely bestowed in the hospital, where
the surgeons declared that it would be necessary to amputate his leg,
I hastened to report myself to my commander. He received me with
kindness and no little surprise, having fully believed that I was
killed. Indeed he told me that a soldier of Adlercron's regiment had
assured him he had seen me fall. However, he fully approved of what I
had done in rescuing my old comrade, only regretting it had not been
in his power to save the rest of the wounded.

I found him much dispirited with the result of the morning's work.

"I have done nothing, Ford," he declared, "nothing. I have marched
into the Nabob's camp, and marched out again, like the King of France
in the nursery rhyme. And here are these gentlemen of the committee
clamouring for peace, that they may get their revenues back again, and
their dustucks, and I know not what else, with the Nabob and his army
at their gates. You see what it is to be a commander--would to God I
were back in England, enjoying my rest!"

The next day put a different complexion on our affairs. Secret
messages arrived from Omichund to say that the Nabob had been
terrified out of his wits, that he no longer considered himself safe
even in the midst of his troops, and that we might depend on a peace
being speedily concluded. Shortly afterwards a letter arrived, written
by Surajah Dowlah's instructions to Colonel Clive, in which he
referred to the treaty on foot between them, and complained bitterly
of the attack upon his camp.

"Now, Ford," said the Colonel to me, when he had shown me this letter,
"I feel a dif