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 CLIVE BESIEGED IN ARkXt. 297 Eastern career of the English, — the foundation-stone chap. of their present empire. It was at Arkat that English ' officers taught their sipahis to follow them with the 1751. implicit confidence which superior skill and energy alone can inspire ; it was at Arkat that they learned the lesson, followed up afterwards with such magnificent results by their leader, that in Asiatic warfare the ques- tion of numbers is merely a secondary consideration ; that discipline and the self-confidence bom of it are of infinitely greater importance ; and there is nothing which a capable general, one who can impress his spirit on his soldiers, may not prudently attempt against an undisciplined enemy. It was at Arkat in fine, that the Anglo-Indian army received its baptism of victory. The incidents of that famous siege are well known to the readers of Anglo-Indian history. On October 4th Raju Sahib took possession of the town, and commenced the investment of the fort. On the 5th, the besiegers beat back a sortie headed by Clive in person. Fifteen days later their battering-train arrived, and on Novem- ber 4, two 18 -pounders from Pondichery. The garrison had been reduced to 120 Europeans and 200 sipahis. A reinforcement of 100 Europeans and 200 sipahis, sent from Madras and commanded by Lieutenant Innis, was attacked on the 5th at Tirupatur, and forced to take refuge in Punamallu. The garrison was thus left en- tirely to itself. Its stock of provisions, originally only a sixty days' supply, was more than half exhausted. On the 10th, a practical breach having been made in the walls, B-aju Sahib sent to Clive a proposal to surrender, offering honourable terms to the garrison and a consider- able sum of money to himself, and accompanying it by a threat to storm the fort and put the garrison to the sword, if his proposition were not acceded to. In reply Clive rejected the proffered terms, contemptuously as regarded the money, and tauntingly with respect to the threats.