"Our stay till August, which is now become unavoidable, will, I hope, settle every thing here in the most advantageous manner for the Company, and perhaps will induce the Nabob to give up all the French factories. This will be driving them out root and branch. I am well informed, without Chandernagore, the Islands must starve, and Pondicherry suffer greatly. My inclinations always tend towards the coast; and I hope to be with you, with a very considerable force, in September. The lateness of the season makes the passage now very uncertain; and the length of it would certainly cause the loss of a great part of our forces. "It was with great reluctance Mr. Watson consented I should sign the articles of capitulation, though drawn out in his name, notwithstanding it was impossible the fort could ever have been taken without our assistance. "We attacked the enemy six or seven days before the ships, and drove them from eleven batteries, one of them by the river side, of very heavy metal, under which were sunk four or five ships and vessels to prevent the passage of the squadron, which could never have been effected without mastering that battery. We erected one of five[109] twenty-four-pounders within a hundred yards of the south-east bastion, and another of three twenty-four-pounders within a hundred and fifty yards of the north-east bastion; besides which, we manned all the tops of the houses, and kept up such a fire of musketry, that the enemy could not appear either on the ramparts or bastions, by which means the fire was insignificant to what it would have been." From this letter, and from one he wrote to Mr. Mabbot, the Chairman of the Directors, there can be no doubt that Clive's intention was to return to the coast as early as he could, and that he expected everything would be settled by September, when the season would be favourable for that voyage; but the jealousy and alarm of the Nabob at the rising power of the English were greatly increased by the fall of Chandernagore; and his character and past actions gave no security against his intrigues and hostility, unless overawed by the presence of a superior force, and the establishment of a commanding influence at his court. The President of the Committee at Calcutta was unequal to the duties now performed by Clive; nor was there one officer in Bengal upon whom these could devolve with the slightest hope of preserving, much less of improving, the advantages that had been obtained.