This stage of the struggle was not a final one; but both by its circumstances, and by the prestige which we acquired in the eyes of the natives, it gave us a moral ascendency which, even when our fortunes were afterwards at their worst, was never lost again.
Muhammud Ali had, himself, gained but little in the struggle.

He was, indeed, nominally ruler of the Carnatic, but he had to rely for his position solely on the support of the English bayonets.

Indeed, the promises, of which he had been obliged to be lavish to his native allies, to keep them faithful to his cause, when that cause seemed all but lost, now came upon him to trouble him; and so precarious was his position, that he was obliged to ask the English to leave two hundred English troops, and fifteen hundred of their Sepoys, to protect the place against Murari Reo, and the Rajahs of Mysore and Tanjore.
The fatigues of the expedition had been great and, when the force reached the seacoast, Major Lawrence was forced to retire to Fort Saint David to recover his health; while Clive, whose health had now greatly broken down, betook himself to Madras; which had, when the danger of invasion by the French was at an end, become the headquarters of the government of the presidency.
There were, however, two French strongholds dangerously near to Madras, Covelong and Chengalpatt.

Two hundred recruits had just arrived from England, and five hundred natives had been enlisted as Sepoys.

Mr.Saunders begged Clive to take the command of these, and reduce the two fortresses.