The hopes indulged of an amicable disposition on the part of Suraj-u-Dowlah were soon dispelled by the military movements of that prince. He had, however, to deal with an opponent not to be deceived. The moment Clive found that, from part of the Nabob's army having entered the city, and the remainder shutting up all the avenues of its approach, his own followers were deserting, and he was likely to be cut off from all supplies, he determined to bring matters to a crisis. On the 4th of February, two gentlemen were deputed to the Nabob, to request, if his intentions were friendly, that he would withdraw. The haughty manner in which his envoys were received, and the refusal to comply with his request, made Clive instantly determine on an attack.
"As I now plainly perceived," he observes in his letter to the Secret Committee, dated 22d February, 1757, "that he only meant to amuse us, and that the little opposition he had received served rather to elate his hopes than incline him to moderate measures, I determined to attack him the next morning before daybreak, while two thirds of his army were still encamped without the Mahratta ditch; for when they had once passed and got into the streets of the town, it would be too late to attempt it. Another pressing reason for the immediate execution of this enterprise, notwithstanding the smallness of my force, was the sudden distress we found ourselves in, upon the approach of the Nabob's army, by a general desertion of our workmen, coolies, and servants, the breaking up of our market, and no provisions to be had but what were supplied from the fort by water; in which condition we could not have continued long, but must have retreated into the fort with disgrace. I therefore desired Admiral Watson to assist me with five or six hundred seamen, principally for drawing the artillery and carrying ammunition, which he readily complied with; and, about three o'clock in the morning, I marched out with nearly my whole force, leaving only a few Europeans, with two hundred new-raised bucksarees, to guard our camp. About six, we entered the enemy's camp in a thick fog, and crossed it in about two hours, with considerable execution. Had the fog cleared up, as it usually does, about eight o'clock, when we were entire masters of the camp without the ditch, the action must have been decisive; instead of which it thickened, and occasioned our mistaking the way. I avoid troubling you with the particulars of this undertaking, as they are fully set down in my journal of military occurrences."