lled
with his father Alam Gir II., the emperor, and united with the viceroys
of Oudh and Allahabad for the conquest of Bengal. He advanced as far as
Patna, which he besieged with 40,000 men. Jafar Ali, in terror, sent his
son to its relief, and implored the aid of Clive. Major Caillaud
defeated the prince's army and dispersed it. Finally, at this period,
Clive repelled the aggression of the Dutch, and avenged the massacre of
Amboyna, on that occasion when he wrote his famous letter, "Dear Forde,
fight them immediately; I will send you the order of council to-morrow."
Meanwhile he never ceased to improve the organization and drill of the
sepoy army, after a European model, and enlisted into it many
Mahommedans of fine physique from upper India. He refortified Calcutta.
In 1760, after four years of labour so incessant and results so
glorious, his health gave way and he returned to England. "It appeared,"
wrote a contemporary on the spot, "as if the soul was departing from the
government of Bengal." He had been formally made governor of Bengal by
the court of directors at a time when his nominal superiors in Madras
sought to recall him to their help there. But he had discerned the
importance of the province even during his first visit to its rich
delta, mighty rivers and teeming population. It should be noticed, also,
that he had the kingly gift of selecting the ablest subordinates, for
even thus early he had discovered the ability of young Warren Hastings,
destined to be his great successor, and, a year after Plassey, made him
resident at the nawab's court.

In 1760, at thirty-five years of age, Clive returned to England with a
fortune of at least L300,000 and the quit-rent of L27,000 a year, after
caring for the comfort of his parents and sisters, and giving Major
Lawrence, his old commanding officer, who had early encouraged his
military genius, L500 a year. The money had been honourably and publicly
acquired, with the approval of the Company. The amount might have been
four times what it was had Clive been either greedy after wealth or
ungenerous to the colleagues and the troops whom he led to victory. In
the five years of his conquests and administration in Bengal, the young
man had crowded together a succession of exploits which led Lord
Macaulay, in what that historian termed his "flashy" essay on the
subject, to compare him to Napoleon Bonaparte. But there was this
difference in Clive's favour, due not more to the