CLIVE'S SUCCESSFUL EXPEDITION TO BENGAL 141

of sending at once a large relieving force under Olive's command, in the hope that it might settle matters in Bengal and return before the French could appear on the Coromandel coast. Their venture met with the suc- cess it deserved; for the preparations in France were BRAHMANS OF BENGAL. so dilatory and the outward voyage was so slow that Lally did not land at Pondicherri until April, 1758. By that time the opportunity had been irremediably lost. The English had not only driven Siraj-ad-daulah out of Calcutta and dispersed his army at Plassey, but had dethroned him and set up another Nawab, had become masters of Bengal, the richest province of India, and had expelled the French from all that region. A few months later Clive could report that " perfect tran- quillity reigns in Bengal "; so that he was able to co-