He was entirely without tact or temper, suspected all the civil authorities of corruption, knew nothing of Oriental feelings or customs; and had precisely that impatient contempt of local experience and provincial soldiering that has so often led second-rate military commanders to disaster in colonial and Asiatic warfare. In order to get money he made a fruitless raid upon Tanjore, which only plunged him deeper into unpopu larity and financial embarrassment. The English ships of war had now arrived, and several sharp though indecisive encounters with the French squadron had so damaged the French ships and discouraged their admiral, that in September 1758 D'Aché withdrew, like Labourdonnais before him, to the Isle of France. Neither entreaties nor protests, nor the fury of Lally, could induce him to remain. We have seen that Lally, who saw and said plainly1 that the French could take no firm hold of the country until the English were beaten out of it, had summoned Bussy to join him from Hyderabad; but with Bussy's departure vanished all the French ascendancy at the Nizám's court, where it was immediately supplanted by English influence, and was never again restored. Bussy had now arrived, and strove by arguments of every sort, including something like bribery, to persuade Lally to permit him to return, with no better result than a rancorous quarrel, in which Bussy lost patience, became estranged, and made no effort whatever to avert the discomfiture of the unlucky general.

Surrounded by obstacles, almost destitute of means,

1 'Le roi et la compagnie m'ont envoyé dans l'Inde pour en chasser les Anglais, c'est avec eux que nous avons la guerre; tout autre intérêt m'est étranger.'-Letter from Lally. This was undoubtedly the sound principle, but Lally blundered heavily in acting upon it.

レ

abhorred by the civil functionaries, and distrusted by the army, Lally marched desperately upon Madras, hoping to reduce it before the English fleet, which had withdrawn during the stormy season, should return to the coast. But the place had been strengthened and well victualled, while Lally was in great straits for men and money, with no hope of reinforcements: his troops were discouraged, and at Pondicherry he was much more hated than helped. A letter from a high Pondicherry official to M. Conflans (4th September 1758), intercepted by the English, gives some notion of the depression then prevailing at headquarters. Lally furiously accused Bussy of disloyalty in evading his demands for money and active co-operation; nor can it be denied that Bussy, although far superior to Lally in military skill and in the knack of managing Orientals, did much prefer remaining at Hyderabad, where he was wealthy and independent, to serving against the English under Lally, who was suspicious, intractable, and manifestly predestined to ruin.

In the course of the next twelve months Lally's situation grew rapidly worse. A letter written by him from his camp before Madras to the governor of Pondicherry, betrays the unhappy general's impotent rage and misery. His cash and gunpowder were both running out, and the country round could furnish no more provisions. He proposed to storm the place by the open breach, but his officers refused to risk the assault, and there was a serious mutiny among his European soldiery; yet he persevered until in February 1759 the arrival of the English fleet struck such dismay into his army that the siege was hastily raised, to the great damage of the French reputation among the native princes, who were all watching the con

test. Admiral D'Aché returned with his ships from Mauritius, threw some insignificant supplies into Pondicherry, and then disappeared finally, leaving French India to its fate. The English forces could now take the field against the French outposts, and they carried by assault the important fort of Vandewash. Clive's letter to Pitt in January 1759', before the siege of Madras had been raised, shows that he had confidently foreseen that the English power at sea, and their possession of the resources of Bengal, must inevitably bring about Lally's complete discomfiture; and before the year's end this prediction was fulfilled. The two armies manœuvred against each other in the Carnatic for some months; but Lally, disregarding Bussy's advice, insisted on attempting to recover Vandewash; whereupon he was attacked by Coote, who saw that

1 'Notwithstanding the extraordinary effort made by the French in sending out M. Lally with a considerable force the last year, I am confident, before the end of this, they will be near their last gasp in the Carnatic, unless some very unforeseen event interpose in their favour. The superiority of our squadron, and the plenty of money and supplies of all kinds which our friends on the coast will be furnished with from this province, while the enemy are in total want of everything, without any visible means of redress-are such advantages as, if properly attended to, cannot fail of wholly effecting their ruin in that as well as in every other part of India.'

Compare the tone of this letter with the following extract from the intercepted letter (referred to above) written to M. Conflans, 4th September, 1758, by a high Pondicherry official :- 'Pauvres Français, où en sommes-nous ? quels projets ne nous croyons-nous pas en état d'exécuter? et combien sommes-nous déchus de l'espérance que nous avait donnée la prise du Fort St. David! Je plains notre général, il doit avoir la tête bien embarrassée, quelque vaste que soit son génie. Sans argent, sans escadre, ses troupes mécontentes, le crédit de la nation perdu, sa réputation chancellante, la mauvaise saison approchant et nous forçant à dépenser pour subsister, sans pouvoir tenter d'enterprise qui nous procure des fonds, que pouvons-nous devenir? Je ne crains pas pour moi, mais je vois avec peine que nous ne brillons pas.'

I

since the siege chained the French down to one spot, he could choose his own time and tactics for fighting them, whereas to meet him Lally would be compelled to divide his force, having to leave a part in the entrenchments. The battle that followed was gallantly contested between the European troops, who were about 2000 strong on each side, by push of bayonet, musketry at close quarters, and artillery. Coote's and Draper's regiments met the battalions of Lorraine and Lally; there was resolute charging and countercharg ing, until the French fell into some disorder, when the plunging fire of the English cannon, the explosion of a tumbril, the fine handling of their men by Coote and Draper, and the capture of Bussy, determined the defeat of the French. The sepoys on both sides were kept back by their commanders and took little share in the action; the Marathas in the French pay hovered uselessly on the outskirts. Lally vainly attempted, with his usual intrepidity, to lead in person a charge of the French cavalry-they could not face the superior artillery of the English; so he rallied his broken lines behind the entrenchments, and made good his retreat to Pondicherry 1.

It was nevertheless a fatal reverse. The French could no longer keep the open field; they lost all their strong places; the districts from which they drew their supplies were gradually occupied by the enemy. The French fleet never returned to the coast, for D'Aché flatly refused to bring back his ships; the English squadron held the sea in great strength, and fresh detachments of English troops were arriving. In this hopeless condition Lally was exposed to the ignoble reproaches and resentment of the civil officials within 1 Battle of Vandewash, January, 1760.

Pondicherry, which was quite unprovided with magazines or a sufficient garrison, and was now at last blockaded by land and water1. The French could only make a feeble resistance; they were completely surrounded and half-starved, until they were compelled to surrender at discretion in January, 1761.

SECTION II. Results of the War.

From the fall of Pondicherry we may date the complete and final termination of the contest between France and England in India. All that remained to the French in that part of the world, says Voltaire, was their regret at having spent during more than forty years immense sums to maintain a Company that had been equally maladroit in commerce and in war, that had never made any profits, and that had paid no genuine dividends either to shareholders or to creditors. The association was dissolved in 1770, after it had been proved from official figures by the Abbé Morellet, who was employed to examine the accounts, that between 1725 and 1769 the Company had lost capital to the amount of 169 millions of francs. He estimated the sum total of the advances that had been made to the Company by successive French ministries, during those forty-four years, at 376 millions; but it should be remembered that the Abbé seems to have been preparing a case for the Company's disso

1 'Voici le moment arrivé de la catastrophe que j'annonce à cette colonie depuis deux ans; réduit, après douze mois de navigation et trente mois de campagne sans interruption, à 800 soldats et 700 sipahis pour toute l'armée, sans argent pour les payer, sans vivres pour les nourrir.'-Lally to the governor of Pondicherry, October 7, 1760.

2 'Elle n'a subsisté que d'un secret brigandage.'--Voltaire, Louis XV.