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Rh were now drawing a goodly revenue not only from large tracts of fertile country in Lower Bengal, but from the Northern Circárs also, whence Bussy's soldiers had been driven out by the dashing Colonel Forde. In Bengal alone they had now a regular army of nearly 12,000 white men and Sepoys; the Dutch at Chinsurah, cowed by their late defeats, could give no further trouble; and the little cruisers of the Bombay marine had been doing good service against the pirates of the Malabar Coast. The great province of Bengal and Behar was ruled by a nominee of the Calcutta Council. From that path of empire, up which the Company were now creeping, no return was possible thenceforth. Vestigia nulla retrorsum is the moral of their subsequent career. The magnet of circumstance will draw them onward through a maze of wars, alliances, and conquests, to a height of political greatness surpassing that of Akbar and Aurangzeb.