Lord Clive: An EssayMaynard, Merrill, 1889 - 86 pages |
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adventurer Anaverdy Khan Arcot army Aurungzebe authority battle battle of Buxar Bengal British Calcutta Carnatic Charles chief Chinsurah Chunda Sahib command committee conquerors death defeated Delhi died dominions Duke Dupleix Dutch East India Company Emperor empire enemy England English essays Europe European fell fled force Fort St fortune France François Bernier French functionaries garrison Ghizni governor honor Hoogley hundred sepoys instantly jewels Kellogg's king land Lord Clive Lucius Licinius Lucullus Macaulay Macaulay's Madras Mahommed Mahrattas Meer Cossim Meer Jaffier ment military mind Mirzapha Jung Mogul Mogul empire Moorshedabad Mussulman Nabob Nabob of Oude native never Newcastle Nizam numbers officers Omichund Orissa palace Parliament Patna Pizarro Plassey political Pondicherry possessed princes provinces Rajah Sahib reign seems sent sepoys servants Shah soldiers soon sovereign spirit success Surajah Dowlah talents throne tion took Trichinopoly triumph troops viceroy victorious Warren Hastings wealth whole
Popular passages
Page 48 - Before him lay a river over which it was easy to advance, but over which, if things went ill, not one of his little band would ever return. On this occasion, for the first and for the last time, his dauntless spirit, during a few hours, shrank from the fearful responsibility of making a decision. He called a council of war. The majority pronounced against fighting; and Clive declared his concurrence with the majority. Long afterwards, he said that he had never called but one council of war, and that,...
Page 40 - Even for a single European malefactor, that dungeon would, in such a climate, have been too close and narrow. The space was only twenty feet square. The air-holes were small and obstructed. It was the summer solstice, the season when the fierce heat of Bengal can scarcely be rendered tolerable to natives of England by lofty halls and by the constant waving of fans.
Page 41 - But the answer was that nothing could be done without the Nabob's orders, that the Nabob was asleep, and that he would be angry if anybody woke him. Then the prisoners went mad with despair. They trampled each other down, fought for the places at the windows, fought for the pittance of water with which the cruel mercy of the murderers mocked their agonies, raved, prayed, blasphemed, implored the guards to fire among them.
Page 50 - The battle commenced with a cannonade, in which the artillery of the Nabob did scarcely any execution, while the few field-pieces of the English produced great effect. Several of the most distinguished officers in Surajah Dowlah's service fell.
Page 40 - Then was committed that great crime, memorable for its singular atrocity, memorable for the tremendous retribution by which it was followed. The English captives were left at the mercy of the guards, and the guards determined to secure them for the night in the prison of the garrison, a chamber known by the fearful name of the Black Hole.
Page 29 - ... that it soon quelled the courage even of fanaticism and of intoxication. The rear ranks of the English kept the front ranks supplied with a constant .succession of loaded muskets, and every shot told on the living mass below. After three desperate onsets, the besiegers retired behind the ditch. '•' The struggle lasted about an hour. Four hundred of the assailants fell. The garrison lost only five or six men. " The besieged passed an anxious night, looking for a renewal of the attack. But when...
Page 50 - No mob attacked by regular soldiers was ever more completely routed. The little band of Frenchmen who alone ventured to confront the English, were swept down the stream of fugitives. In an hour the forces of Surajah Dowlah were dispersed, never to reassemble.
Page 65 - Under their old masters they had at least one resource : when the evil became insupportable, the people rose and pulled down the government. But the English government was not to be so shaken off. That government, oppressive as the most oppressive form of barbarian despotism, was strong with all the strength of civilization. It resembled the government of evil Genii, rather than the government of human tyrants.
Page 66 - It must be acknowledged," says the Mussulman historian of those times, "that this nation's presence of mind, firmness of temper, and undaunted bravery, are past all question. They join the most resolute courage to the most cautious prudence; nor have they their equals in the art of ranging themselves in battle array and fighting in order. If to so many military qualifications they knew how to join the arts of government, if they...
Page 11 - Fighting," says one of his uncles, "to which he is out of measure addicted, gives his temper such a fierceness and imperiousness that he flies out on every trifling occasion.