occasion, the loss of the service by acts of wildness: and a story was long current that, either in a fit of despair, or of low spirits, to which he was subject from his earliest years, he made, at this period, an attempt upon his own life. A companion, coming into his room in Writers' Buildings, was requested to take up a pistol and fire it out of the window: he did so. Clive, who was sitting in a very gloomy mood, sprang up, and exclaimed--"Well, I am reserved for something! That pistol," said he to his astonished friend, "I have twice snapped at my own head." This is not unlikely to be true, nor is its probability contradicted, by his never having spoken of it to any of his family after his return to England. But, while he properly threw a veil over the more violent ebullitions of his youth, he was fond of recurring to every act of early kindness which had been shown to him; and amongst these, he considered as one of the most important, his admission, soon after his arrival in India, into an excellent library belonging to the Governor of Madras. He now devoted much of his leisure to study, and there can be little doubt that it was at this time he laid the foundation of that knowledge, which was so soon to surprise and benefit his country. When Madras was taken by the French Admiral La Bourdonnais (A. D. 1746), Clive became a prisoner of war, and like others gave his parole. It was agreed by the articles of capitulation that the English should surrender themselves prisoners of war; that the town should, in the first instance, be given up, but should be ransomed; and M. de la Bourdonnais gave his promise that he would settle the ransom on easy and moderate terms.[24] Dupleix, however, who was then at Pondicherry, ever at variance with the Admiral, insisted that Madras should be rased to the ground, and called upon the English officers to renew their parole to a governor whom he appointed. This infraction of the terms of capitulation was viewed with indignation by all, and construed into a release from the engagement into which they had entered. De la Bourdonnais, with regret, found himself unable to fulfil the conditions stipulated[25]; and Clive, accompanied by his friends Mr. Edmund Maskelyne, contrived, in the disguise of a native, to escape to Fort St. David.