Surrounded by so numerous an enemy, Clive would soon have been straitened for provisions. To prevent this inconvenience, and to alarm a timorous enemy, he resolved to surprise their camp before daylight, and for this purpose he marched out from his camp—the artillery, 100 men, and six 6–pounder guns in the rear; the ammunition on lascars’ heads, guarded by sailors; the sipahis and European battalion leading. At dawn, they came upon the enemy’s advanced posts, placed in the ditches of the Dum-Dum road, whom they easily dispersed, and continued their march parallel to the Mahratta ditch until they came opposite Omichund’s garden, when the fog, usual at that season, came on and obscured every thing before them; they proceeded onwards, however, the field-pieces in the rear firing round shot obliquely outwards, until they reached a causeway which ran from the ditch towards the lake, and on which was a barrier; mounting the causeway, the troops wheeled and marched along it, which brought them under the fire of their own guns, and caused considerable confusion. In order to avoid this, Clive ordered all the troops to cross the causeway and lie down till the firing from the rear could be stopped. Some guns from the ramparts of the Mahratta ditch also opened on them, and made great havoc, so that Clive was forced to continue his march until he reached the Bally-a-ghat road, when, turning to his right, he marched up the Boitaconnah and Salt Bazaar to the old fort, abandoning two of his guns, whose carriages broke down, and in the evening regained his camp by the road along the river. This expedition, though ill-planned, produced the desired effect on the Nawab, who eagerly desired to enter into terms of accommodation with the British, whose activity he feared. In March, the reinforcements arrived from Bombay, and an attack on the French settlement of Chandernagore was resolved on; it was attacked both by land and from the river, the chief attack being made by the ships of war; the artillery had but a comparatively small part to play.