578 HISTOllV OF iNJjlA. [Eook III
AD. 17.17. escape to tell the tale. The river was crossed witliout oppo.sition, and shortly
after a letter arrived from Mcer Jafiier, giving notice of the nabob's movements,
and suggesting the possibility of taking him by sur|)rise; but, in other respects,
so far from satisfactory, that Clive immediately sent back the messenger who
ciive brought it, with the answer "that he .should march to Pla-ssey witliout delay,
iii;u-ehe8 to iiii i -i ••i/'i
I'lLssey. and would the next morning advance six miles turther to the village of Daud- pore ; but if Meer Jaffier did not join him there he would make peace with the nabob." According to Meer Jaffier s information, the nabob had airived at Muncarra, a village six miles south of Co.ssimbazar, intending there to entrench himself and wait the event. This information proved false; for when Clive arrived at Plassey, at one in the morning, after a fatiguing march of fifteen miles, the continual sound of drums, clarions, and cymbals, which alwa3-s accom- l)any the night watches of an Indian camp, told him that the nabob's army was not a mile distant. The intention to encamp at Mimcarra had been formed in the belief that Clive would advance immediately after the capture of Cutwah ; but from circum.stances already explained, his movements not having been .so rapid as was expected, the nabob quickened liis own pace and arrived at Plassey before him. Naturally of a cowardly disposition, and surrounded by treachery, of which the evidences could not have escaped his notice, the nabob became more and more desponding as the danger approached. On the evening of his arrival, his attendants had gone out, one by one, to say their usual prayers, at the time of .sunset. Being at the time absorbed in his own gloomy reflections, he was not aware that they had left him alone, till looking up he perceived a man who had secretly entered the tent, probably to steal. Starting up, and calling loudly for his attendants, he exclaimed — " Surely they see me dead. ' The hostile In the immediate 'icinity of Plassey was a grove of mango trees, planted
Plassey. in regular rows, and extending about 800 yards, with a breadth of 300. It was inclosed by a slight bank, and a ditch nearly choked up with weeds and brambles, and slanted with its west side along the bank of the river, which was distant at the southern extremity 200 yards, and at the north not more than fifty. At a short distance north of the grove was an entrenchment, which RoyduUub, while encamped here, had tlirown up. It stretched for about 200 yards from the bank of the river, in a line nearly parallel to the north side of the grove, and then diverging to the north-east, was continued in that direction for about three miles. The nabob's army was encamped within this entrench- ment, and began at daybreak, on the 23d of June, to issue from various open- ings and advance towards the grove. His artillery consisted of forty to fifty pieces of caimon, mostly of the largest calibre. Several of them were mounted on a redoubt constructed in the entrenchment, in the angle formed by the change in its direction ; four of them on the bank of a large tank about 900 yards south of the redoubt, under forty Frenchmen, headed by one Sinfray ; and two on a line with the tank, and close to the river. The rest of the artillery,
