Clive sprang up and cried, "I feel that I am reserved for something great!" 4. The two great exploits, by which Clive secured to England the possession of Madras and Bengal, were the Defence of Arcot and the Battle of Plassey. 5. After the French seized Madras, Clive escaped in the dress of a Mussulman to Fort St. David. There, with nothing to do as a clerk, he took a musket and went out to fight: and his daring valour soon made him so marked that he was intrusted with a command. 6. While a native pretender, who was in alliance with the French, was besieging Trichinopoly,1 Clive advanced in the midst of a terrific storm of thunder and lightning to the town of Arcot, which was the capital of the Carnatic.3 Arcot consisted of some straggling streets, surrounding a 'citadel, the ramparts of which were low and broken. So fright ened was the native officer who commanded the place, that he yielded it at once to Clive. 7. Then came the grand difficulty: having got the fortress, how to keep it. The young Englishman found within the loose and crumbling walls just eight cannon of different sizes, and he expected to get two eighteen-pounders from Madras, now restored to England. With these mounted at favourable points, he commenced his defence in the face of a native army, growing every day larger. In several 'sallies he was successful; and in the difficult undertaking of bringing the two eighteen-pounders through the enemy's lines he also succeeded. 8. The foe grew furious, and showered cannon balls and musket bullets on the walls in vast numbers; but in spite of famine and assault the defence was admirably sustained. The enemy then made up their minds to a last desperate attack, and they chose for it a holy day, on which the native soldiers were likely to be in a state of mad 'intoxication. 9. At the dawn huge elephants were driven toward the gates, which they were to force open with 'massive plates of iron bound upon their foreheads. At the same time, swarms of dark turbaned men ran from their camp and leaped down into the ditch, wherever it contained rubbish; while others got on a raft, where the ditch held water, and tried to push it over to the broken walls. The 10. Clive was ready for both attempts. elephants, smarting under a rain of bullets, which pierced their thick skins, ran back on their drivers, trampling them to death. With his own hands Clive pointed a cannon which sent a shower of grape among the crowd huddled on the raft, and cleared it at once. The enemy, baffled at every point, gave up the siege and withdrew. This defence was the turning-point in the strife which secured to Britain the possession of Madras. 11. The tyranny and cruelty of Sujah Dowlah, an Indian prince who had taken Calcutta, brought Clive to Bengal for the sake of avenging the crime of the Black Hole. The place was deserted by the Governor and the Commandant; but one hundred and forty-six Europeans were captured by the boyish monster, and were pushed into a low and dark cell, only twenty feet square, with no means of admit ting air except two little windows secured with iron bars. 12. In a few minutes they began to feel suffocation, and screamed out to the guard: but the guard only laughed. A dreadful struggle then began among the prisoners to get near the windows, for on this their lives depended. In this struggle the weakest were overcome, and sank down to die. Money was offered in great sums to the sentinels, if they would go and waken the Prince; but they refused, because these Eastern tyrants used sometimes to cut off a man's head for so slight a thing as rousing them from sleep. 13. Hour by hour the screams and struggles grew fainter, for the few that remained alive were too weak to cry out; and, when in the morning an order came to open the door, the rush of a hot stench from the corpses within almost overpowered the men who undid the bolts. Of the twenty-three persons that came out alive, fever killed several in a short time. 14. This crime was avenged on the field of Plassey. There Clive, Bengal having retaken Calcutta, met the cruel Nabob in battle. The native army was enormous; the British force very small. Can nons, placed on high platforms which were drawn along by white oxen and pushed from behind by elephants, opened a harmless fire on the British lines, which were protected by a mud wall. 1757 A.D. 15. Clive waited quietly for the enemy to attack him. Indeed he was so cool in this hour of danger, that, being very tired, he lay down to sleep but the army of the enemy was in fact a mere mob armed with matchlocks and spears, and they undertook no distinct movement. They loaded and fired, until a shower of rain wet their powder, and then they began to retreat. Of this Clive quickly took advantage. He pointed his artillery on the broken masses of the enemy, and turned their confusion into headlong flight. The Nabob lost all his artillery and his baggage. Ever since that day the English have been supreme in India. ad-mi-ra-bly, splendidly. de-spond-ing, losing hope. in-tox-i-ca-tion, drunkenness. 1 Trichinop'oli.-A town 180 miles south-west of Madras. mas-sive, weighty. su-i-cide, self-destruction. 3 The Carnat/ic.-The south-eastern portion of the peninsula of Hin2 Ar'cot. Sixty-four miles south- dustan, extending along the coast, and west of Madras. inland for 75 miles. 37. THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM. 1. A young English General, named James Wolfe, set out to ascend the St. Lawrence one summer, as soon as the ice of that river had broken up and floated down to the sea. Though only thirty-one years of age, he commanded a force of about eight thousand men. In the fleet which accompanied him there were two men 'destined to future greatness. The one was Jervis, who, with Nelson's aid, won the Battle of St. Vincent: the other was James Cook, the great explorer of the Pacific. The object of the expedition was the capture of Quebec, the capital of Canada, which was then a French province. 2. Quebec stands on the point of a rocky 'projection, looking down the river St. Lawrence. The bank of the stream is high and craggy: and some miles below Quebec, in the centre, dividing the current into two branches, lies an island, called the Isle of Orleans. Opposite this island, on the north bank of the river, a tributary called the Montmorency, after leaping from a ledge of rock 250 feet high, flows quietly into the St. Lawrence. 3. From the camp which Wolfe formed on the Isle of Orleans, the steep rock of Quebec could be seen. He soon took possession of a point called Point Levi, on the south bank, from which he could pour red-hot shot and shells into the town, and set the houses on fire. This, however, did not harm the Citadel. For nearly two months Wolfe lay on the island and beside the Montmorency, gaining little or no advantage in his attacks. 4. Twice the British fleet was assailed by fireships, which came blazing down the stream at night, lighting up the woods and rocks with a red |