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Manak Chand was so alarmed at the fighting powers shown by the English
in these two affairs, that, leaving only a garrison of five hundred
men at Calcutta, he retired with his army to join the nabob at
Moorshedabad. When the fleet arrived before the town, the enemy
surrendered the fort at the first shot, and it was again taken
possession of by the English.
Major Kilpatrick was at once sent up, with five ships and a few
hundred men, to capture the town of Hoogly, twenty miles farther up.
The defences of the place were strong. It was held by two thousand
men, and three thousand horsemen lay around it. The ships, however, at
once opened a cannonade upon it, and effected a breach before night,
and at daybreak the place was taken by storm.
Two days after the capture of Calcutta, the news arrived that war had
again been declared between England and France. It was fortunate that
this was not known a little earlier; for had the French forces been
joined to those under Manak Chand, the reconquest of Calcutta would
not have been so easily achieved.
The nabob, furious at the loss of Calcutta, and the capture and sack
of Hoogly, at once despatched a messenger to the governor of the
French colony of Chandranagore, to join him in crushing the English.
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