l if that vote had settled the question. Luckily,
Clive was a man of genius, and was not either afraid to admit that he
had made a mistake, or to change his mind. A short period of solitary
reflection convinced him that he and the majority were wrong, and that
Eyre Coote and the minority were right. He informed Eyre Coote of his
new decision, gave the necessary orders, and the next day the battle of
Plassey was fought and won.

It is not necessary here to go into the details of that momentous day.
The desperate courage, daring, and skill of the English troops carried
all before them; their cannonade scattered death and confusion into the
Nabob's ranks. Within an hour an army of sixty thousand men was
defeated, with astonishingly slight loss to the victors; Surajah
Dowlah, abandoned at the judicious moment by one traitor, Meer Jaffier,
was flying for his life in obedience to the insidious counsels of
another traitor, Rajah Dulab Ram. From that hour Bengal became part of
the English empire.

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The fate of the different actors on the Indian side was soon decided.
Meer Jaffier was duly invested with the Nabob's authority over Bengal,
Behar, and Orissa; Omichund, on learning the shameful trick of the Red
Treaty, went mad and died mad; Surajah Dowlah was soon captured and
promptly killed by Meer Jaffier: the Blackhole was avenged.

[Sidenote: 1757--The conqueror returns]

Clive had now reached the pinnacle of his greatness. Victor of
Plassey, Governor of Bengal, he remained in India for three more
resplendent years; he added to the number of his conquests by defeating
the great enterprise of Shah Alum against Meer Jaffier, and shattered
the Dutch descent upon the Hoogly--a descent secretly favored by the
ever-treacherous Meer Jaffier--both on land and sea. Then, with laurel
victory upon his sword, and smooth success strewn before his feet,
Clive resolved to return again to England. He sailed from India, full
of honors, in 1760, the year in which George the Second died. When he
arrived in England George the Third was king. Here for the moment we
must leave him, the greatest living soldier of his country, with a
career of practically unbroken glory behind him. He had reached his
apogee. We shall meet with him again under less happy conditions, when
the sun of Plassey had begun to set.

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CHAPTER XXXIX.

CHANGES.

[Sidenote: 1751--"Give us back our eleven days"]

Meanwhile some changes w