However, by good fortune their treachery had been discovered, and when
the French arrived they received no reply to their signal; and as
Arcot would be sure to fall if they defeated Clive, they marched away
without attacking it, to take up the position which they had agreed
upon beforehand.
It was at nine in the evening that Clive, at Vendalur, obtained
intelligence that the enemy had assembled at Conjeveram. The troops
had already marched twenty-five miles, but they had had a rest of five
hours, and Clive started with them at once, and reached Conjeveram,
twenty miles distant, at four in the morning. Finding that the enemy
had again disappeared, he ordered the troops to halt for a few hours.
They had already marched forty-five miles in twenty-four hours, a
great feat when it is remembered that only the Arcot garrison were in
any way accustomed to fatigue, the others being newly raised levies.
The greater portion of the Sepoys had been enlisted within the
fortnight preceding.
"I don't know, Mr. Marryat, whether the French call this fighting. I
call it playing hide and seek," Tim Kelly said. "Shure we've bin
marching, with only a halt of two or three hours, since yisterday
morning; and my poor feet are that sore that I daren't take my boots
off me, for I'm shure I'd never git 'em on agin.
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