In Clive's Command: A Story of the Fight for India Read online

  Preface

  I have not attempted in this story to give a full account of the careerof Lord Clive. That has been done by my old friend, Mr. Henty, in "WithClive in India." It has always seemed to me that a single book providestoo narrow a canvas for the display of a life so full and varied asClive's, and that a work of fiction is bound to suffer, structurally andin detail, from the compression of the events of a lifetime within sorestricted a space. I have therefore chosen two outstanding events in thehistory of India--the capture of Gheria and the battle of Plassey--andhave made them the pivot of a personal story of adventure. The wholeaction of the present work is comprised in the years from 1754 to 1757.

  But while this book is thus rather a romance with a background of historythan an historical biography with an admixture of fiction, the reader maybe assured that the information its pages contain is accurate. I havedrawn freely upon the standard authorities: Orme, Ives, Grose, the livesof Clive by Malcolm and Colonel Malleson, and many other works; inparticular the monumental volumes by Mr. S.C. Hill recently published,"Bengal in 1756-7," which give a very full, careful and clear account ofthat notable year, with a mass of most useful and interesting documents.The maps of Bengal, Fort William and Plassey are taken from Mr. Hill'swork by kind permission of the Secretary of State for India. I have tothank also Mr. T. P. Marshall, of Newport, for some valuable notes on thehistory and topography of Market Drayton.

  For several years I myself lived within a stone's throw of the scene ofthe tragedy of the Black Hole; and though at that time I had no intentionof writing a story for boys, I hope that the impressions of Indian life,character and scenery then gained have helped to create an atmosphere andto give reality to my picture. History is more than a mere record ofevents; and I shall be satisfied if the reader gets from these pages anidea, however imperfect, of the conditions of life under which all empirebuilders labored in India a hundred and fifty years ago.

  Herbert Strang