Robert Ainsleigh Author:Mary Elizabeth Braddon Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE BOLT FALLS. Next morning, the 16th of June, brought us tidings of the Nabob's approach. His army had crossed the river from Hooghly on the... more » previous day, in a vast fleet of boats, and were fast bearing down on us— an armament as mighty in proportion to our numbers as that barbaric host which descended on the sea- sands of Marathon two thousand years before ; and we, alas! had no Aristides. Now, for the first time in my life, I beheld the horror and confusion of war; and piteous was the scene which Calcutta presented to my unaccustomed eyes. Fear took possession of every breast. The Gentoo inhabitants who had not already fled abandoned their houses, carrying such possessions as they could, and flying they knew not whither, to escape the wrath of the tyrant; though what offence these, or we ourselves, had committed against Suraja Doulah I cannot conceive. Whilethe Gentoos thus scattered themselves, the Portuguese, to the number of two thousand, flocked to the fort, where men, women, and children were indiscriminately admitted, together with the Englishwomen, who all exchanged the doubtful shelter of their houses for the comparative security of Fort William. And now military and militia were ordered to their posts, from the northernmost of which the van of the Nabob's army was descried at mid-day. I will not enter into the details of the siege that gave Calcutta into the hands of our bloodthirsty foe. A full account of the many errors and blunders which assisted our defeat has been published by my friend Mr. Holwell, who, as second in command, held one of the most dangerous outposts on the second and busiest day of our defence. That we had among us many brave men, there can be no doubt—from the gallant captain who perished in our subsequent most cruel agony o...« less