Page:History of the French in India.djvu/493

 olive's difficulties. they exhorted, in case the news of the declaration of war between France and England, then expected, should reach them whilst they had so strong an arma- ment in Bengal, not to fail to use it for the destruction of the rival settlement of Chandranagar.* The action fought at Bajbaj ; the surrender to the English of Calcutta on January 2, 1757 ; and the capture and storming of the town of HugK eight days later, are incidents which belong solely to the history of the English settlements ; it will therefore be sufficient here to record the bare facts. But it was during the march to HugK that Clive received the long-looked-for intima- tion of the declaration of war by France against England. To him and to all the members of the Calcutta Council it seemed that this intelligence reached them at the most opportune moment. They could not but congratulate themselves that the French had not learned it before the success of the operations of Clive and Watson against Calcutta had been assured. It came to them just after the difficulties of the river navigation had been over- come, when Calcutta had surrendered, and when they did not doubt that the attack upon Hugh' would produce a strong moral effect on the natives of Bengal. Still, however, the situation of Clive, in itself one of great difficulty, could not bear to be compromised by a too early manifestation of hostile intentions against the French settlement in Bengal. He could not but feel that the Subadar of Bengal would not leave unavenged the expulsion of his troops from Calcutta, and that he would not easily pardon the raid against one of the principal stations of his province. He could not shut his eyes to the possibility that the French, learning that war between the two nations had been declared, might of the fall of Chandranagar is based cated to the writer by M. Derussat, upon t he histories ofOrme and Broome, the administrator in 186G-8 of the the journal of Dr. Ives, the official French establishments in Bengal, report of M. Renault, and the extracts HH 2
 * Orme. The account here given from the public records, communi-