登陆注册
4705400000233

第233章

He was wretchedly lodged, no small calamity in a climate which can be made tolerable to an European only by spacious and well placed apartments. He had been furnished with letters of recommendation to a gentleman who might have assisted him; but when he landed at Fort St. George he found that this gentleman had sailed for England. The lad's shy and haughty disposition withheld him from introducing himself to strangers. He was several months in India before he became acquainted with a single family. The climate affected his health and spirits. His duties were of a kind ill-suited to his ardent and daring character. He pined for his home, and in his letters to his relations expressed his feelings in language softer and more pensive than we should have expected either from the waywardness of his boyhood, or from the inflexible sternness of his later years. "I have not enjoyed" says he "one happy day since I left my native country"; and again, "I must confess, at intervals, when I think of my dear native England, it affects me in a very peculiar manner....

If I should be so far blest as to revisit again my own country, but more especially Manchester, the centre of all my wishes, all that I could hope or desire for would be presented before me in one view."

One solace he found of the most respectable kind. The Governor possessed a good library, and permitted Clive to have access to it. The young man devoted much of his leisure to reading, and acquired at this time almost all the knowledge of books that he ever possessed. As a boy he had been too idle, as a man he soon became too busy, for literary pursuits.

But neither climate nor poverty, neither study nor the sorrows of a home-sick exile, could tame the desperate audacity of his spirit. He behaved to his official superiors as he had behaved to his schoolmasters, and he was several times in danger of losing his situation. Twice, while residing in the Writers' Buildings, he attempted to destroy himself; and twice the pistol which he snapped at his own head failed to go off. This circumstance, it is said, affected him as a similar escape affected Wallenstein.

After satisfying himself that the pistol was really well loaded, he burst forth into an exclamation that surely he was reserved for something great.

About this time an event which at first seemed likely to destroy all his hopes in life suddenly opened before him a new path to eminence. Europe had been, during some years, distracted by the war of the Austrian succession. George the Second was the steady ally of Maria Theresa. The house of Bourbon took the opposite side. Though England was even then the first of maritime powers, she was not, as she has since become, more than a match on the sea for all the nations of the world together; and she found it difficult to maintain a contest against the united navies of France and Spain. In the eastern seas France obtained the ascendency. Labourdonnais, governor of Mauritius, a man of eminent talents and virtues, conducted an expedition to the continent of India in spite of the opposition of the British fleet, landed, assembled an army, appeared before Madras, and compelled the town and fort to capitulate. The keys were delivered up; the French colours were displayed on Fort St.

George; and the contents of the Company's warehouses were seized as prize of war by the conquerors. It was stipulated by the capitulation that the English inhabitants should be prisoners of war on parole, and that the town should remain in the hands of the French till it should be ransomed. Labourdonnais pledged his honour that only a moderate ransom should he required.

But the success of Labourdonnais had awakened the jealousy of his countryman, Dupleix, governor of Pondicherry. Dupleix, moreover, had already begun to revolve gigantic schemes, with which the restoration of Madras to the English was by no means compatible.

He declared that Labourdonnais had gone beyond his powers; that conquests made by the French arms on the continent of India were at the disposal of the governor of Pondicherry alone; and that Madras should be razed to the ground. Labourdonnais was compelled to yield. The anger which the breach of the capitulation excited among the English was increased by the ungenerous manner in which Dupleix treated the principal servants of the Company. The Governor and several of the first gentlemen of Fort St. George were carried under a guard to Pondicherry, and conducted through the town in a triumphal procession under the eyes of fifty thousand spectators. It was with reason thought that this gross violation of public faith absolved the inhabitants of Madras from the engagements into which they had entered with Labourdonnais.

Clive fled from the town by night in the disguise of a Mussulman, and took refuge at Fort St. David, one of the small English settlements subordinate to Madras.

The circumstances in which he was now placed naturally led him to adopt a profession better suited to his restless and intrepid spirit than the business of examining packages and casting accounts. He solicited and obtained an ensign's commission in the service of the Company, and at twenty-one entered on his military career. His personal courage, of which he had, while still a writer, given signal proof by a desperate duel with a military bully who was the terror of Fort St. David, speedily made him conspicuous even among hundreds of brave men. He soon began to show in his new calling other qualities which had not before been discerned in him, judgment, sagacity, deference to legitimate authority. He distinguished himself highly in several operations against the French, and was particularly noticed by Major Lawrence, who was then considered as the ablest British officer in India.

同类推荐
  • 乐邦文类

    乐邦文类

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • HECUBA

    HECUBA

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 金刚摧碎陀罗尼

    金刚摧碎陀罗尼

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 学山诗话

    学山诗话

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 赠徐安宜

    赠徐安宜

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 小人物的华娱

    小人物的华娱

    那一年,陈歌的初中刚刚读完,爷爷病逝,高中学费还差四百块钱;那一年,影视城初建,一个龙套一天的出工费是28元……(平行时空,偏现实,不小白,不脑残)
  • 红笸箩(下篇)

    红笸箩(下篇)

    洪耙子的尸体当天就被呼兰县的衙役送回了洪家堡子。让人想不到的是,呼兰县令王凤梧也随着拉尸的车到了洪家堡子。许小蓟和蚕豆刚从河边回来。这几天,许小蓟正在静养,白天和蚕豆游山玩水,为的是不让腹内的胎儿受了惊。许小蓟和蚕豆每人手里拎着一只蛤蟆,刚过了桥头,就有人报信儿,说县衙押着拉尸的车到了洪家堡子。许小蓟吃惊地问:“谁死了?”报信儿的人说:“是洪耙子。”许小蓟更加吃惊地问:“耙子不是和怀德在一块儿?怀德怎么样?耙子是咋死的?”
  • 七宗罪

    七宗罪

    2009年,轰动嘉市全城的612案件在嘉市的头版头条之上占据了整整一个礼拜之久。这案子一经公开,嘉市的市民瞬间就炸开了锅。可外界谁都不知道,这件案子的起因,就仅仅只是一个失踪案牵扯而带动的。
  • 御灵新世界

    御灵新世界

    (注:本书存在大量章节缺失,慎入)幻兽大陆日报……震惊!一只名为皮卡丘的黄毛老鼠居然把雷神坐骑夔牛给劈死了!粗俗!万年难得一遇的天才御灵使竟对其御灵兽们做出这种事……昔日天才御灵使竟遭千万人追杀,群众:沙奈朵是我哒!这算不算丢人到外域了?黎明竟在外域诱拐了国王的史莱姆公主?……在这个神奇的世界,未知生命体、魑魅魍魉、龙凤龟蛇、甚至西方魔物哥布林史莱姆皆归为灵兽,通过敷灵灵兽战斗和增强自己的御灵使们明争暗斗,只为走上修炼终点。魂穿而来的黎明,却带着更加未知、且画风不同的神奇宝贝来到了这里……简介无力,看了再说……
  • 魂归之主神大人等着瞧

    魂归之主神大人等着瞧

    她本是三界至尊,她知道自己要等一个人,却从来都不知道她到底要等谁?谁才是她要等的那个人?直到死亡的那一刻才知道,他们注定阴阳相隔。重活一世,她魂飞魄散,需要依靠圣魔印来找寻她的灵魂碎片,这一世,他们还会相遇吗?
  • 大荒生民

    大荒生民

    一本披着玄幻外衣的故事书,一本专心讲故事的书。
  • 大都魂魄

    大都魂魄

    2008年的第29届奥运会,让北京成为全球瞩目的城市。尽管作为六朝古都和中华人民共和国的首都,北京是全国的政治文化中心,也是中国的政治心脏,北京无疑是中国在世界上最有名的城市。但是要想让世界全方位地了解中国,认识北京,2008年第29届奥运会绝对是千载难逢的机会。北京奥组委主席刘淇在北京生活工作了50多年,他对这座城市充满深情。2005年1月14日召开的北京奥组委第二次全体会议上,这位身居高官的“老北京”,用庄严的语气,向国际奥委会承诺:要把2008年北京奥运会办成一届“有特色,高水平”的奥运会。
  • 引发学生奇思妙想的创新故事

    引发学生奇思妙想的创新故事

    本书精心挑选了100个寓意深刻、耐人寻味的创新故事,内容涉及古今中外的发明创造,以及生活中的新观念、新方法。每个故事皆充满智慧,体现创意,给人启迪;每个故事配有精彩独到的点评,挖掘故事深层的智慧,揭示创新的内涵和方法。
  • 道德真经四子古道集解

    道德真经四子古道集解

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 重生之侯门闺懒

    重生之侯门闺懒

    一道圣旨降下,蒋婷从低贱的罪户之女,变成了高贵的侯门千金!终于达成了前世衣来伸手饭来张口的米虫梦想,蒋婷觉得很幸福。嗯,日后再挑个家世良好,老实巴交,没有野心的好相公,那日子简直就是幸福美好加三级啊!可惜好景不长,尚未及笄,蒋婷的懒“闺”生活就出现了严重危机。府内有小心眼的后娘要算计她的婚事嫁妆,府外有爱记仇的毛头小子专门给她的亲事捣鬼添乱!蒋婷急了眼。虽然她万事都懒得计较,可这挑老公的事情,绝对绝对要自己来啊!【情节虚构,请勿模仿】