years in India, but he does not appear ever to have acquired any proficiency in the native languages of India. The unforeseen expenses in which he became involved owing to the detention of the ship resulted in his arriving at Madras in debt to the captain. The only gentleman at Madras to whom he had an introduction had left India before he arrived. He appears at first to have led a very forlorn and solitary life, suffering even then from the depression of spirits which at times attacked him in after years, and which was the cause of his melancholy end. In one of his letters, written a few months after his arrival, he described himself as not having enjoyed one happy day since he left his native country. 'I am not acquainted,' he wrote, 'with any one family in the place, and I have not assurance enough to invite myself without being asked.' About this time he made an attempt upon his life which failed owing to the pistol not going off. His work, which was very much that of a clerk in a merchant's office, was by no means to his taste, nor was subordination to his official superiors a duty which he was prepared to discharge without a struggle. On more than one occasion he got into serious scrapes by his wayward and insubordinate behaviour.
But Clive was not destined for prolonged employment at the desk. In the very year in which he arrived at Madras war was declared between England and France, and two years later Madras capitulated to the French under Admiral Labourdonnais. Clive, with the rest of the English in the settlement, became a prisoner of war, but was allowed to remain at liberty on parole, the French admiral having promised to restore the place on payment of a ransom, which he undertook should not be excessive in amount. The terms granted by Labourdonnais were not approved by Dupleix, the governor of Pondicherry, who required the English to give a fresh parole to a new governor, removing the English governor and some of the principal officials to Pondicherry, and parading them as captives before the natives of the town and surrounding country. Clive, deeming that this infraction of the terms upon which the parole had been given released him from his obligations, escaped in company with his friend, Edmund Maskelyne, in the disguise of a native, to Fort St. David, a place on the coast to the south of Pondicherry, which was still held by the English. In the following year Clive applied for military employment, and, having obtained an ensign's commission, served in 1748 under Admiral Boscawen in the unsuccessful siege of Pondicherry, where he greatly distinguished himself by his bravery. It was during dive's stay at Fort St. David, and before he had entered upon military duty, that a characteristic incident occurred. He became involved in a duel with an officer whom he had accused of cheating at cards. According to the account given in Malcolm's 'Life,' Clive fired and missed his antagonist, who came close up to him and held his pistol to his head, desiring him to ask for his life, which Clive did. His opponent then called upon him to retract his assertions regarding unfair play, and on his refusal threatened to shoot him. 'Fire and be d——,' was Clive's answer. 'I said you cheated and I say so still, and I will never pay you.' The astonished officer threw away his pistol, exclaiming that Clive was mad. Clive was much complimented on the spirit he had shown, but declined to come forward against the officer with whom he had fought, and never afterwards willingly alluded to his behaviour at the card-table. 'He has given me my life,' he said, 'and though I am resolved on never paying money which was unfairly won, or again associating with him, I shall never do him an injury.' This incident forms the subject of Browning's poem ' Clive ' (Dramatic Idylls, 2nd ser. 1880), in which the facts of the duel are stated somewhat differently, the poet omitting all mention of the demand that Clive should beg for his life and the compliance with it, and describing the officer as having, under the spell of Clive's undaunted courage, acknowledged the truth of the accusation.
During the siege of Pondicherry Clive became involved in a dispute with another officer who had made an offensive remark regarding Clive having on one occasion left his post to bring up some ammunition. In the course of the altercation the officer struck Clive, but a duel was prevented and a court of inquiry was held, which resulted in Clive's assailant being required to ask his pardon in front of the battalion to which they both belonged. The court, however, having taken no notice of the blow, Clive insisted on satisfaction for that insult, and on its being refused waved his cane over the head of his antagonist, telling him he was too contemptible a coward to be beaten. The affair ended in the person who had defamed Clive resigning his commission on the following day. Mill, adverting to these and other similar incidents, characterises Clive as having been 'turbulent with his equals;' but this judgment is contested, and apparently with reason, by Clive's biographer, Malcolm, who points out that 'in all these disputes Clive appears to have been the party offended, and that the resolute manner in which he
