hed me I know not from what lips, that the
passenger we had received on board was no other than the famous Mr.
Robert Clive, who had just been created a lieutenant-colonel by the
king, and whom we were carrying out to India to take up his government
of Fort St. David in the Carnatic.

At this time, though Mr. Clive had not yet reached to that height of
eminence which he afterwards attained, he was already known as one of
the bravest Englishmen of his time, and I had heard from many quarters
of his glorious exploits in the Indies. Although a civilian by
profession, when the settlements of the East India Company in Madras
were threatened with destruction by the French, he had exchanged his
pen for a sword, and, with a mere handful of English and Sepoys, had
captured and maintained the town of Arcot against a great army of the
French and their allies, after which he had beaten them in many
engagements, and in the end wrested the entire province of the
Carnatic from their hands. Since then he had been in England, where he
had stood for the Parliament, and, as it was thought, had given up all
intentions of returning to Indostan. Now the news that we had him on
board with us, and that he was on his way out, no doubt to drive the
last remains of the French power from that quarter of the world, came
on my ears like the summons of a trumpet, and went far to make me
content with the accident that had thrown me in the way of the
pressgang.

Mr. Griffiths, the lieutenant, who had continued to take some notice
of me, for which I was not ungrateful, chanced to come by while I was
full of these thoughts, and after confirming the news which I had
heard, fell to talking with me about our cruise.

"You see I did you a good turn by bringing you off from that muddy
fishing-hole," he was pleased to observe presently. "Now you are
likely to see some service, and, if luck serves, to bring home a good
share of prize-money."

By this time I had called to mind the sailing of the _Fair Maid_, and
the destination of that passenger of hers, to see whom once more I
would have given all the prize-money in the world.

"Are we like to make the Hooghley river, do you think, sir, when we
get out to the Indies?" I ventured to ask.

"That's as it may be," he answered, friendly enough. "All I can tell
you--for I believe this to be no secret--is that our first port in
those seas is Bombay. And further, since we cannot attack the French
till war break