absolute master of the
situation. He had probed to the bottom the character of the Subahdar,
and had realized that so long as he himself should remain in India,
and Mir Jafar on the _masnad_, the English need fear no attack. But,
in the East, one man's life, especially {119}life of a usurper, is
never secure. In those days the risks he incurred were infinitely
greater than they are now. Clive had noted the ill-disguised
impatience of several of the powerful nobles, more especially that of
Miran, the son, and of Mir Kasim, the son-in-law, of the Subahdar. He
had left, then, the greater part of his English soldiers at
Kasimbazar, close to the native capital, to watch events, whilst he
returned to Calcutta to trace there the plan of a fortress which
would secure the English against attack. The fort so traced, received
the name of its predecessor, built by Job Charnock in the reign of
King William III, and called after him, Fort William.

Nearly one month later, June 20, there arrived from England
despatches, penned after learning the recapture of Calcutta, but
before any knowledge of the events which had followed that recapture,
ordering a new constitution for the administering of the Company's
possessions in Bengal. The text of the constitution, ridiculous under
any circumstances, was utterly unadapted to the turn events had
taken. It nominated ten men, not one of whom was competent for the
task, to administer the affairs of Bengal. The name of Clive was not
included amongst the ten names. It was not even mentioned.
Fortunately for the Company, the ten men nominated had a clearer idea
of their own fitness than had their honourable masters. With one
consent, they represented the true situation to the Court of
Directors, and then, with the same unanimity, requested Clive {120}to
accept the office of President, and to exercise its functions, until
the pleasure of the Court should be known. Clive could not but accede
to their request.

For, indeed, it was no time for weak administration and divided
counsels. Again had the French attempted to recover the position in
Southern India which Clive had wrested from them. Count Lally, one of
the brilliant victors of Fontenoy, had been sent to Pondicherry with
a considerable force, and the news had just arrived that he was
marching on Tanjore, having recalled Bussy and his troops from the
court of the Subahdar of the Deccan. With the news there had come
also a request that the Gove