RECOVERY AND AFTER
of his leg and subsequent sufferings with equal patience and heroism. Captain Speke recovered from his wound, but poor little Billy died in the hospital a fortnight later, of tetanus. He was buried in the adjoining burial-ground, now St. John's Churchyard, where his tomb remains in good preservation, with its curiously worded epitaph as follows—
Here lyes the
Body of William Speke
Aged 18 son of Hy. Speke Esqr.
Captain of His Majesty's Ship Kent
He lost his leg and life in that ship
At the capture of Fort Orleans
The 24th March Anno 1757.
This inscription gives the boy's age as eighteen, whereas Ives says he was sixteen, and the date of the capture of Chandernagore is also wrongly stated, as the town was taken on the 23rd of March. Near Billy Speke's tomb is that of Admiral Watson, who died on the 16th of August, 1757, at the early age of forty-four.
Before Admiral Watson died, Clive had led his conquering army to Plassey and Murshedabad. The reasons which led to this change of policy are matters of history. Suraj-ud-Dowlah, while keeping at a respectful distance from Calcutta, had broken faith with the English, and was intriguing with the French to come up from
