n
as dogged, as that which, in difficult circumstances, English
soldiers have always displayed. After an hour's fierce fighting, in
which the French took no part, the besiegers fell back, beaten,
baffled, and humiliated. At two o'clock that afternoon they begged to
be allowed to bury their dead. At two o'clock the following morning
they disappeared in the direction of Vellore.

{56}Thus ended the siege of Arcot. It had lasted fifty days. The
manner in which it ended gave the English, and especially the English
leader, a prestige which had an enormous effect on the campaigns that
followed. What a great thing this much-abused 'prestige' is in India
was illustrated by the fact that the minds of the native princes and
peoples all over the southern part of the peninsula turned to Clive
as to a master whom they would follow to the death. He inverted the
positions of the two nations, confounded by his brilliant action the
schemes of Dupleix, and, very soon afterwards, was able to impose his
will, representing the will of the English nation, upon all the
native princes who ruled or reigned in the territories of Haidarabad
and the Karnatik.

For--another great feature in the character of this man--Clive never
left a work half-finished. The blow, he felt, was weak and paltry
unless it were driven home. So he felt, so he acted, on this
occasion. On the 19th he took Timeri, the fort which had before
baffled him. Joined then by Morari Rao with 1000 Maratha horsemen, he
marched on Arni, seventeen miles south of Arcot, to attack Raja
Sahib, who had taken post there with the army which had lately
besieged him, reinforced by French troops just arrived from
Pondicherry. The superiority in numbers of the force of Raja Sahib
was so great that, when he noted the approach of Clive, he turned to
meet him. Clive halted where he was. He had recognized that his
position was excellent for defence, covered in front {57}by
rice-fields impracticable for guns, on the right by a village, and on
the left by a grove of palm-trees. There he ranged his troops to meet
the threatened attack.

It came very quickly, for the space between the two forces was but
300 yards. The enemy had discovered a narrow causeway leading across
the marshy ground to the village on Clive's right. Heralding their
approach with an advance of cavalry, they directed a portion of their
horsemen to assail the village on the right; another portion to drive
Morari Rao from the gro