The Nawab’s troops on shore had by this time begun to draw off, and the action slackened down to a casual musketry fire here and there. The fort, however, still held out, and a sharp fusillade came from its walls. Apparently the garrison were looking for Manikchand’s return to their relief. Admiral Watson on that sent for Clive, and a Council of War was held on board the _Kent_. It was decided to storm Budge-Budge at daybreak next morning. Clive’s soldiers were given the afternoon to rest after their work of the past twenty-four hours. To assist in the storming a naval battalion, made up of an officer, two midshipmen, and forty men from each of the men-of-war, was landed, with two of the _Kent’s_ 9-pounders which were to batter in the main gate. As things turned out there was no need of the storming party. That evening, while the troops were bivouacking before the fort, a sailor from the _Kent_ took Budge-Budge all by himself. The story is best told in the words of Dr. Ives, our correspondent on the spot: “All was now quiet in the camp,” he begins, “and we on board the ships, which lay at their anchors but a small distance from the shore, had entertained thoughts of making use of this interval to refresh ourselves with an hour or two of sleep, but suddenly a loud and universal acclamation was heard from the shore, and soon afterwards an account was brought to the Admiral that the place had been taken by storm.” Great was the astonishment on board at the news, and “great joy” as Dr. Ives relates, “the more so as it was quite unexpected.” Then, as it would seem, when they heard what had actually taken place, everybody affected to be scandalized rather than pleased. “When the particular circumstances that ushered in this success were related,” continues the worthy surgeon of the _Kent_, “our exultation was greatly abated, because we found that the rules so indispensably necessary in all military exploits had been disregarded in the present instance, and therefore could not help looking upon the person who had the principal hand in this victory rather as an object of chastisement than of applause.” This, to resume with the Doctor, is how Budge-Budge fell: