iver, but the enemy's matchlock men
peppered us so severely that we lost thirty English and fifty Sepoys
in getting over. The enemy's entrenchment was not finished, but in
front of it was a deep rivulet, which had to be crossed.

"Lawrence gave the command of the storming party to Clive. He is one
of our fellows; a queer, restless sort of chap, who was really no good
here, for he hated his work and always seemed to think himself a
martyr. He was not a favourite among us, for he was often gloomy and
discontented, though he had his good points. He was straightforward
and manly, and he put down two or three fellows here, who had been
given to bully the young ones, in a way that astonished them.

"He would never have made a good servant of the Company, for he so
hated his work that, when he had been out here about a year, he tried
to blow out his brains. He snapped the pistol twice at his head, but
it didn't go off, though it was loaded all right. Strange, wasn't it?
So he came to the conclusion that he wasn't meant to kill himself, and
went on living till something should turn up."

"Yes," Charlie said; "Doctor Rae spoke to us about him during the
voyage. He knew him at the siege of Fort Saint David, and
Pondicherry."

"Yes," Johnson said. "He came out there quite in a new light. He got
transferred into the military service, and was always in the middle of
the fighting. Major Lawrence had a very high opinion of him, and so
selected him to lead the storming party. It really seems almost as if
he had a charmed life. Lawrence gave him thirty-three English
soldiers, and seven hundred Sepoys. The rest of the force were to
follow as soon as Clive's party gained the entrenchments. Clive led
the way with his Europeans, with the Sepoys supporting behind, and got
across the rivulet with a loss of only four men. He waited on the
other bank till he saw the Sepoys climbing up, and then again led the
English on in advance towards the unfinished part of the entrenchment.

"The Sepoys, however, did not move, but remained waiting for the main
body to come up. The enemy let Clive and his twenty-nine men get on
some distance in advance, and then their cavalry, who had been hidden
by a projection of the fort, charged suddenly down on him. They were
upon our men before they had time to form, and in a minute twenty-six
of them were cut to pieces. Clive and the other three managed to get
through the Tanjore horsemen and rejoin the Sepoys. T