4()i
HISTORY OF INDIA.
(li<JOK III.
A.D. 1761.
I'rooee liii'js during the
Pagoda at Conjeveram.— From Viscount Valentias Travels
Conjeverain ; and, on being expelled by thirty liluropean.s and fifty sepoys from Arcot, withdrew to a neigldjouring fort. Here their numbers were continualh augmented. The convoy being thus endangered, Clive, reserving only thirty
Europeans and fifty sepoys, sent out all the rest of hiw troops to insure its safety. On this, the enemy with considerable dexterity .sud- denly changed their tactics, and hastening to Arcot, sui-- rounded the fort with their whole force as soon as it was (lark. A fire of musketry was immediately opened upon the ramparts from the adjacent buildings, while a large body, horse and foot promiscuously, rushed towards the principal gates with loud outcries and the noise of martial music. A few hand-gi-enades thrown into the ma&s so frightened the horses, that they galloped off, trampling the foot beneath them ; a second assault made in the same manner was repulsed by the same means. The fire against the ramparts was still kept up and continued till daybreak, when the assailants fled precipitately on seeing the approach of the detachment and con- voy. It is rathor singular, that during the attack on the fort, the inhabitants within it expressed no sympathy with their countrymen outside. Some may see in this nothing but Olive's good fortune, but others with more justice will see in it the due reward of the kindness and generosity which he h.ad displayed in allowing them both to occupy their dwellings and retain possession of then- goods.
The capture of Arcot produced the effect which had been anticipated ; and the pressure on Trichinopoly was considerably relieved by the withdi'awal of 4000 of Ohunda Sahib's troops. These, joined on their route by his son Rajah Sahib, with 1 50 Eiu-opeans from Pondicheny, and the other troops preousl3- collected in the neighbourhood, entered Arcot on the 23d of September. Clive, unwilling to be cooped up within the fort, determined to take the initiative, and try whether he could not, by a vigorous effort, rid himself of the enemy altogether. Facing the north-west gate of the fort was a street, which, after running north for 70 yards, turned east to the nabob's palace, where Rajah Sahib had fixed his head- quarters. From the palace another street ran south, and was continued along the east side of the fort. The space thus bounded by streets on the west, north, and east, and by the north wall of the fort on the south, fonned a squai-e occupied by buildings and inclosures. With the
