Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/135

Book VII. which it was certainly their interest to have taken without delay, refused him their assistance, and proposed to the English, that the two nations should engage by treaty not to commit hostilities against each other in Bengal during the continuance of the war in Europe. Nevertheless, Colonel Clive despaired of victory over the Nabob, although unassisted by the French force; and yielding to the advice of Rungeet Roy, wrote a letter to the Nabob on the 30th of January proposing peace. The Nabob answered with expressions of cordiality; but continued his march. As he approached, an Armenian, named Petrus, brought and carried several messages; and on the 2d of February, the Nabob desired to confer with deputies, and promised to send passports for them in the evening; but no passports came; and the next morning at day-break, the villages to the north-east were seen in flames, and soon after the van of his army appeared advancing in full march towards Calcutta. Their way was along a high road, which runs for a mile north and south, until it reaches the head of the lake, where was a bridge of masonry, from whence the road turns and continues in the direction of east and west, almost in a strait line for two miles until it joins the N. E. part of the Morattoe ditch: so that if the bridge had been retrenched, and a detachment with two field-pieces posted there, the enemy must have passed between this post and the camp: but Colonel Clive, perhaps not imprudently, unwilling to divide his force, and equally so to break off the negotiation with the Nabob, suffered the troops in sight to pass unmolested; who spread themselves without the Morattoe ditch, and a body of their Louchees, or plunderers, who are armed with clubs, passed into the company's territory about noon, and attacked the houses of the natives in the northern part of the town; but a detachment which had been posted at Pemng's redoubt, sallied, and, killing some of them, returned with 50 prisoners; which deterred the enemy from making any more incursions during the rest of the day. In the plain, troops after troops, in different intervals, followed the first that appeared; and in the afternoon a large body, with cannon and coolies, began to intrench themselves in a large garden on the right hand of the road, midway