Page:History of India Vol 8.djvu/208

168 French had been dislodged and some rising ground occupied that commanded the interior of the enemy's fortified camp, Clive delivered his assault at one angle; whereupon the Nawab's whole army dispersed in a general rout, leaving on the field its camp equipage, its artillery, and about five hundred men. Clive's despatch reports the loss on his side to have been twenty-two killed and fifty wounded. Next morning, Mir Jafir, who had merely hovered about the flanks of the engagement with a large body of cavalry, paid a visit to Clive, was saluted as Nawab, and hastened to occupy the capital, Murshidabad, where soon after he put Siraj-ad-daulah to death.

The whole province quietly submitted to the new ruler; the emperor's government at Delhi, which was occupied just then by Ahmad Shah with an Afghan army, was totally incapable of interference; so that by this sudden and violent revolution English ascendency at once became established in Bengal.

The rout of Plassey – for it can hardly be called a battle – is in itself chiefly remarkable as the first important occasion upon which the East India Company's troops were openly arrayed, not as auxiliaries, but as principals, against a considerable native army commanded in person by the ruler of a great province. It stands, in fact, first on the long list of regular actions that have been fought between the English in India and the chiefs or military leaders of the country. The event supplies, therefore, a very striking illustration of the radical weakness of those native governments