of a piece of artillery
himself, and cleared the raft in a few minutes. Where the moat was
dry, the assailants mounted with great boldness; but they were
received with a fire so heavy and so well directed, that it soon
quelled the courage even of fanaticism and of intoxication. The rear
ranks of the English kept the front ranks supplied with a constant
succession of loaded muskets, and every shot told on the living mass
below. The struggle lasted about an hour; 400 of the assailants fell;
the garrison lost only five or six men. The besieged passed an anxious
night, looking for a renewal of the attack. But when day broke, the
enemy were no more to be seen. They had retired, leaving to the
English several guns and a large quantity of ammunition."

In India, we might say in all history, there is no parallel to this
exploit of 1751 till we come to the siege of Lucknow in 1857. Clive, now
reinforced, followed up his advantage, and Major Lawrence returned in
time to carry the war to a successful issue. In 1754 the first of the
Carnatic treaties was made provisionally, between T. Saunders, the
Company's resident at Madras, and M. Godeheu, the French commander, in
which the English protege, Mahommed Ali, was virtually recognized as
nawab, and both nations agreed to equalize their possessions. When war
again broke out in 1756, and the French, during Clive's absence in
Bengal, obtained successes in the northern districts, his efforts helped
to drive them from their settlements. The Treaty of Paris in 1763
formally confirmed Mahommed Ali in the position which Clive had won for
him. Two years after, the Madras work of Clive was completed by a firman
from the emperor of Delhi, recognizing the British possessions in
southern India.

The siege of Arcot at once gave Clive a European reputation. Pitt
pronounced the youth of twenty-seven who had done such deeds a
"heaven-born general," thus endorsing the generous appreciation of his
early commander, Major Lawrence. When the court of directors voted him a
sword worth L700, he refused to receive it unless Lawrence was similarly
honoured. He left Madras for home, after ten years' absence, early in
1753, but not before marrying Miss Margaret Maskelyne, the sister of a
friend, and of one who was afterwards well known as astronomer royal.
All his correspondence proves him to have been a good husband and
father, at a time when society was far from pure, and scandal made h