With Clive in India; Or, The Beginnings of an EmpireHenty, G. A. (George Alfred)
History
With Clive in India; Or, The Beginnings of an Empire
Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
India -- History -- British occupation, 1765-1947 -- Fiction
Clive, in the meantime, had been at work. On the day after his arrival
at Samieaveram, he attacked and captured the temple of Mansurpet,
halfway between the village and the island. The temple was lofty, and
stood on rising ground, and commanded a range of the country for many
miles round.
On its top, Clive established a signal station. Upon the following day
he carried the mud fort of Lalgudi, which was situated on the north
bank of the river, two miles to the east of Paichandah, which now
remained Law's only place of exit from the island.
D'Auteuil, after sending word to Law of his intentions, marched from
Utatua, where he was lying, by a road to the west which would enable
him to move round Samieaveram to Paichandah. Clive captured one of the
messengers, and set off with his force to intercept him. D'Auteuil,
however, received information by his spies of Clive's movement, and
not wishing to fight a battle in the open, with a superior force, fell
back to Utatua, while Clive returned to Samieaveram.
Law, too, had received news of Clive's movement. Here was a chance of
retrieving the misfortunes of the campaign. Paichandah being still in
his hands, he could sally out with his whole force and that of Chunda
Sahib, seize Samieaveram in Clive's absence, and extend his hand to
D'Auteuil, or fall upon Clive's rear. Instead of this, he repeated the
mistake he had made before Trichinopoli; and, instead of marching out
with his whole force, he sent only eighty Europeans, of whom forty
were deserters from the English army, and seven hundred Sepoys.
The English returned from their march against D'Auteuil. The greater
portion of the troops were housed in two temples, a quarter of a mile
apart, known as the Large and Small Pagoda. Clive, with several of his
officers, was in a caravansary close to the Small Pagoda.
Charlie's company were on guard, and after paying a visit to the
sentries, and seeing that all were on the alert, he returned to the
caravansary. The day had been a long one, and the march under the heat
of the sun very fatiguing. There was therefore but little
conversation, and Charlie, finding, on his return from visiting the
sentries, that his leader and the other officers had already wrapped
themselves in their cloaks and lain down to rest, imitated their
example.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account