xpedition by water; Clive by land. The success of the
combined movements was rapid and complete. The fort, the garrison, the
artillery, the military stores, all fell into the hands of the
English, and nearly five hundred European troops were among the
prisoners.

Soon after, Clive marched to attack Surajah Dowlah near Plassey. At
sunrise on the morning of June 23, 1757, the army of the nabob,
consisting of 40,000 infantry and 15,000 cavalry, supported by fifty
pieces of heavy ordnance, advanced to attack the English army, which
did not exceed three thousand men in all, and had for its artillery
but a few field-pieces. But the nabob had no confidence in his army,
nor his army in him; the battle was confined to a distant cannonade,
in which the nabob's artillery was quite ineffective, while the
English field-pieces did great execution. Surajah's terror became
greater every moment, and led him to adopt the insidious advice of a
traitor, Meer Jaffier, and order a retreat. Clive saw the movement,
and the confusion it occasioned in the undisciplined hordes; he
ordered his battalions to advance, and, in a moment, the hosts of the
nabob became a mass of inextricable confusion. In less than an hour
they were dispersed, never again to reassemble; though only five or
six hundred fell; their camp, guns, baggage, with innumerable wagons
and cattle, remained in the hands of the victors. With the loss of
only 22 soldiers killed and 50 wounded, Clive had dispersed an army of
60,000 men, and conquered an empire larger and more populous than
Great Britain. Surajah Dowlah fled from the field of battle to his
capital, but, not deeming himself safe there, he tried to escape by
the river to Patna. He was subsequently captured, and barbarously
murdered by the son of Meer Jaffier. In the meantime Clive led Meer
Jaffier in triumph to Moorshedabad, and installed him as nabob.

Immense sums of money were given to the servants of the company; Clive
received for his share between two and three hundred thousand pounds.
Nor was this all: Shah Alum, the son of the Emperor of Delhi, having
invaded Bengal, Clive delivered Meer Jaffier from this formidable
enemy, and was rewarded with the jaghire or estate of the lands south
of Calcutta, for which the company were bound to pay the nabob a
quit-rent of about thirty thousand pounds annually. But the gratitude
of Meer Jaffier did not last long; weary of his dependence on the
English, he sought an alliance