ot. Their guns had not, however, arrived, with the exception
of four mortars; but they at once occupied all the houses near the
fort, and from the walls and upper windows kept up a heavy fire on the
besieged.

Clive determined to make an effort, at once, to drive them from this
position, and he accordingly, on the same afternoon, made a sortie. So
deadly a fire, however, was poured into the troops as they advanced,
that they were unable to make any way, and were forced to retreat into
the fort again, after suffering heavy loss.

On the night of the 24th, Charlie Marryat, with twenty men carrying
powder, was lowered from the walls; and an attempt was made to blow up
the houses nearest to them; but little damage was done, for the enemy
were on the alert, and they were unable to place the powder in
effective positions, and with a loss of ten of their number the
survivors with difficulty regained the fort.

For the next three weeks the position remained unchanged. So heavy was
the fire which the enemy, from their commanding position, maintained,
that no one could show his head for a moment, without running the risk
of being shot. Only a few sentinels were kept upon the walls, to
prevent the risk of surprise, and these had to remain stooping below
the parapet. Every day added to the losses.

Captain Clive had a series of wonderful escapes, and indeed the men
began to regard him with a sort of superstitious reverence, believing
that he had a charmed life. One of his three remaining officers,
seeing an enemy taking deliberate aim at him through a window,
endeavoured to pull him aside. The native changed his aim, and the
officer fell dead. On three other occasions sergeants, who accompanied
him on his rounds, were shot dead by his side. Yet no ball touched
him.

Provisions had been stored in the fort, before the commencement of the
siege, sufficient for sixty days; and of this a third was already
exhausted when, on the 14th of October, the French troops serving with
Riza Sahib received two eighteen-pounders, and seven smaller pieces of
artillery. Hitherto the besiegers had contented themselves with
harassing the garrison night and day, abstaining from any attack which
would cost them lives, until the arrival of their guns. Upon receiving
these, they at once placed them in a battery which they had prepared
on the northwest of the fort, and opened fire.

So well was this battery placed, and so accurate the aim of its gunne