judgment, and it was there that he attracted the notice of Major Stringer Lawrence, who, having been recently appointed to the command of the Company's forces, conducted the earlier stages of the siege, in the course of which he was unfortunately taken prisoner.

THE NATIVE RULERS-THE AFFAIR OF DÉVI-
KOTA-CLIVE'S NARROW ESCAPE-HE IS PER-
MANENTLY TRANSFERRED ΤΟ THE MILITARY

SERVICE
FRENCH

CONFLICT BEWEEN ENGLISH AND

BROUGHT ABOUT BY THE AMBITION OF DUPLEIX-BATTLE OF AMBUR-CLIVE'S PROPOSAL TO SEIZE ARCOT.

IN 1748 the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, which provided for the restoration of Madras to the English, put a stop for a time to further hostilities between the English and French in India. A few months later, however, circumstances occurred which induced Clive again to enter military employment. Before narrating these events, it may be well to say a few words as to what was at that time the position of

the English and French in India in relation to the native sovereigns. These rulers were headed by the Emperor of Delhi, commonly known as the Great Moghul, but more correctly designated as the Pádishah, who was nominally the supreme overlord of the countries then called India, but whose real power was extremely limited. When Clive arrived at Madras in 1744, only five years had elapsed since the sack of Delhi by Nádir Shah, The Moghul authority had then received its deathblow. In South India it was extinct in the principalities of Tanjore, Madura and Mysore, which were held by rulers of the Mahratta race. The Nizam of Hyderabad, or Subahdár of the Dekhan, was the ruler of the provinces now under the Nizam, with an authority shared by the Mahrattas, who were then the most powerful race in India. This chief was nominally, but not always in reality, the superior of the Nawáb of the Carnatic. It was as the tenants of the latter ruler that the English and French held their respective positions at Madras and Fort St David in the one case, and at Pondicherry in the other. Those possessions were very small, occupying in each case only a few square miles; for both the English and the French had gone to India not for the purpose of acquiring territory, but for the purpose of carrying on trade.

The immediate cause which led Clive to serve again in a military capacity was an invitation