BOOK IV. found was gaining ground at the uncontrolable authority with which a stranger disposed of the powers of Deccan, and of the sons of the great Nizam al Mulk, he re-committed the seal of state to Bassalut Jung, but under securities which precluded any improper use.

1758.

To provide a permanent security for his predominating influence in the government of the Subah, there was wanting, besides the distant provinces which yielded him the necessary revenue, a place of strength, near the seat of government, to render him independent of the sudden machinations of his enemies. The celebrated fortress of Dowlatabad, both from locality and strength, was admirably adapted to his views. It was at present in possession of the prime minister, the mortal foe of Bussy, the chief actor in the late commotions, and the assured instrument of others in every hostile design. By a sum of money, Bussy gained the deputy Governor to admit him secretly with his troops into the fort; and this invaluable instrument of power was gained without the loss of a man. As the utmost efforts, however, of the resentment of the minister were now assured, Bussy secured the means of rendering him a prisoner in the midst of the camp of the Subahdar, at the very hour when he himself was received into the fort of Dowlatabad. These events alarmed Nizam Ali into submission; and an accommodation was effected, by which he agreed to divest himself of his government of Berar, and accept of Hyderabad in its stead. When holding his court, to receive the compliments of the principal persons, before his departure for his new government, he was waited upon, among others, by Hyder Jung, the Duan of Bussy. This personage was the son of a Governor of Masulipatam, who had been friendly to the French; and he had attached himself to Bussy, since his first arrival at Golconda. Bussy was soon aware of his talents, and soon discovered the great benefit he might derive from them. He became a grand and dexterous instrument for unravelling the plots and intrigues against which it was necessary for Bussy to be incessantly on his guard; and a no less consummate agent in laying the trains which led to the accomplishment of Bussy's designs. To give him the greater weight with his countrymen, and more complete access to the persons and the minds of the people of consequence, he obtained for him titles of nobility, dignities, and riches; and enabled him to hold his Durbar, like the greatest chiefs. He was known to have been actively employed in the late masterly transactions of Bussy; and an occasion was chosen on which a blow might be struck, both at his life, and that of Salabut Jung. A day was appointed by the Subahdar for paying his devotions at the tomb of his father, distant about twenty miles from Aurengabad; and on the

second day of his absence, Nizam Ali held his court. Hyder Jung was received CHAP. IV. with marked respect; but, on some pretext, detained behind the rest of the 1758. assembly, and assassinated. The first care of Bussy, upon this new emergency, was to strengthen the slender escort of Salabut Jung. The next was, to secure the person of the late minister; of whose share in the present perfidy he had no doubt, and whom he had hitherto allowed to remain under a slight restraint in the camp. That veteran intriguer, concluding that his life was in danger, excited his attendants to resist, and was slain in the scuffle. Struck with dismay, upon the news of this unexpected result, Nizam Ali abandoned the camp in the night, taking with him his select cavalry alone; and pursued his flight towards Boorhanpore, about 150 miles north from Aurengabad, with all the speed which the horses could endure. Thus was Bussy delivered from his two most formidable enemies, by the very stroke which they had aimed against him; and in this state of uncontrolable power in the wide-extended government of Deccan, was he placed, when the arrival of Lally produced an extraordinary change in his views; and insured a new train of events in the Subah.

The character of that new Governor was ill adapted to the circumstances in Character of Lally. which he was appointed to act. Ardent and impetuous, by the original structure of his mind; his early success and distinction had rendered him vain and presumptuous. With natural talents of considerable force, his knowledge was scanty and superficial. Having never experienced difficulties, he never anticicipated any: For him it was enough to will the end; the means obtained an inferior portion of his regard. Acquainted thoroughly with the technical part of the military profession, but acquainted with nothing else, he was totally unable to apply its principles in a new situation of things. Unacquainted with the character and manners of the people among whom he was called upon to act; he was too ignorant of the theory of war, to know, that on the management of his intellectual and moral instruments, the success of the General mainly depends.

He began by what he conceived a very justifiable act of authority, but which The mode of his acting was in reality a cruel violation of the customs, the religion, and in truth, the wants concililegal rights of the natives. As there was not at Pondicherry, of the persons of ation. the lower castes, who are employed in the servile occupations of the camp, a sufficient number to answer the impatience of M. Lally in forwarding the troops to Fort St. David, he ordered the native inhabitants of the town to be pressed, and employed without distinction of caste, in carrying burdens, and performing whatever labour might be required. The terror and consternation created by

Book IV. such an act was greater than if he had set fire to the town and butchered every man whom it contained. The consequence was that the natives were afraid to trust themselves in his power; and he thus insured a deficiency of attendants.*

1758.

The feeble bullocks of the country, and the smallness of the number which the Governor and Council of Pondicherry were able to supply, but ill accorded with Lally's ideas of a sufficiency of draught cattle. The very depressed state of the treasury precluded the possibility of affording other facilities, the want of which his impatience rendered a galling disappointment. He vented his uneasiness in reproaches and complaints. He had carried out in his mind one of those wide and sweeping conclusions which men of little experience and discrimination are apt to form; that his countrymen in India were universally rogues: And to this sentiment, the ignorance and avidity at home which recalled Dupleix were well calculated to conduct him. The Directors had told him in their instructions; " As the troubles in India have been the source of fortunes, rapid and vast, to a great number of individuals, the same system always reigns at Pondicherry, where those who have not yet made their fortune hope to make it by the same means; and those who have already dissipated it hope to make it a second time. The Sieur de Lally will have an arduous task to eradicate that spirit of cupidity; but it would be one of the most important services which he could render to the Company:" + Every want, therefore, which he experienced; every delay which occurred, he ascribed to the dishonesty and misconduct of the

This, at least, is stated by the English historians, and by the numerous and too successful enemies of Lally. In the original correspondence, there is no proof that I can perceive. In one of Lally's letters (to De Leyrit, 18th of May) he presses him to prevail upon the inhabitants of Pondicherry, by extra rewards, to lend their assistance. This looks not like a general order to impress the inhabitants. The truth is, that he himself brings charges, which were too well founded, of oppression committed by others against the natives. In his letter to De Leyrit, 25th of May, 1758, he says, "J'apprend que dans votre civil et dans votre militaire, il se commet des vexations vis-a-vis des gens du pays qui les eloignent et les empêchent de vous faire les fournitures necessaires à la subsistance de l'armée." Lally says in his Memoir, p. 50, «Des employés du Sieur Desvaux, protégé par le Sieur de Leyrit, arrêtoient des provisions qui arrivoient au camp, et exigeoient de l'argent des noirs, pour leur accorder la liberté du passage. Un de ces brigands avoit été pris en flagrant delit. On avoit saisi sur lui un sac plein d'especes et de petits joyaux enlevés aux paysans."

+ Mem. pour Lally, p. 21. In their letter of the 20th March, 1759, they say, "Vous voudrez bien prendre en consideration l'administration des affaires de la Compagnie, et l'origine des abus sans nombre que nous y voyons: Un despotism absolu nous paroit la premiere chose a corriger." -They add, "Nous trouvons par-tout des preuves de la prodigalité la plus outrée, et du plus grand desordre."

1758.

persons employed; and had so little prudence as to declare incessantly those CHAP. IV. * opinions in the most pointed and offensive terms which his language could supply. These proceedings rendered him in a short time odious to every class of men in the colony; precluded all cordial co-operation, and insured him every species of ill-office which it was safe to render. The animosity at last between him and his countrymen became rancour and rage; and the possibility of a tolerable management of the common concerns was utterly destroyed.

taken.

On the 1st of May, Lally himself arrived at Fort St. David; and when joined Fort St. Davi by the troops from the ships, and those whom he had drawn from the forts in Carnatic, he had, according to Mr. Orme, 2,500 Europeans, exclusive of officers, and about the same number of Sepoys, assembled for the attack. The garrison consisted of 1,600 natives, and 619 Europeans, of whom eighty-three were sick or infirm, and 250 were seamen. † The place held out till the 1st of June. when, having nearly expended its ammunition, it yielded on capitulation. It was expected to have made a better defence; and the English historians have not spared the conduct of the commanding officer. He had courage and spirit in sufficient abundance; but was not very rich in mental resources, or very accurate in ascertaining the conduciveness of his means. In consequence of instructions brought from France, Lally immediately issued orders for razing the fortifications to the ground: As soon as the fort capitulated, he sent a detachment against Devi-Cotah, which the garrison immediately abandoned; and on the 7th of June, he returned with the army, in triumph, and sung Te Deum at Pondicherry.

The English, in full expectation that the next operation of Lally would be Lally's operations cramped by deficient There is no doubt at all, that the neglect of all preparation, to enable him to act with supplies. promptitude, though they had been expecting him at Pondicherry for eight months, was extreme, and to the last degree culpable. There was a total want of talent at this time at Pondicherry; a weak imagination that the expected armament was to do every thing, and that those who were there before had no occasion to do any thing; otherwise with the great superiority of force they had enjoyed since the arrival of the 1,000 Europeans, in the beginning of September, they might have performed actions of no trifling importance, and have at least prepared some of the money and other things requisite for the operations of Lally.

+ Orme. Lally (Mem. p. 42) says, " Il y avoit dans le Fort de Saint David sept cent Européens, et environ deux mille Cipayes. Les troupes du Comte de Lally consistoient en seize cents Européens, et six cents noirs, tant cavalerie qu' infanterie, ramassés à la hâte. Son regiment, qui avoit essayé un combat de mer, ou il avoit perdu quatre-vingt-quatre hommes, et à qui on n' avoit donné depuis son debarquement à Pondicherry, que quarante-huit heures de repos, etoit à peine en etat de lui fournir deux piquets.”—It is at least to be remembered that this statement of facts was made in the face of Lally's numerous and bitter enemies.

1758.

BOOK IV. the siege of Madras, had called in the troops from all the forts in the interior, except Trichinopoly; and had even debated whether they should not abandon that city itself. All the troops from Tinivelly and Madura were ordered to return to Trichinopoly, and, together with the garrison, to hold themselves in readiness for any emergency.

The great poverty, however, of the French exchequer; and the inability, created or greatly enhanced by the unpopular proceedings of Lally, of supplying its deficiencies by credit; cramped his operations, and sharpened the asperities of his temper. He had written from Fort St. David to the Governor of Pondicherry, in the following terms; "This letter shall be an eternal secret between you, Sir, and me, if you afford me the means of accomplishing my enterprise. I left you 100,000 livres of my own money to aid you in providing the funds which it requires. I found not, upon my arrival, in your purse, and in that of your whole council, the resource of 100 pence. You, as well as they, have refused me the support of your credit. Yet I imagine you are all of you more indebted to the Company than I am. If you continue to leave me in want of every thing, and exposed to contend with universal disaffection, not only shall I inform the King and the Company of the warm zeal which their servants here display for their interest, but I shall take effectual measures for not depending, during the short stay I wish to make in this country, on the party spirit and the personal views, with which I perceive that every member appears occupied, to the total hazard of the Company."*

Despairing of funds from any other source, he resolved to devote to this object the next operations of the war. He at the same time recalled Bussy, against

* Memoire, ut supra, Piéces Justificatives, p. 30. De Leyrit defended himself by asserting the want of means; "Je vous rendrai compte," says he, "de ma conduite, et de la disette de fonds dans laquelle on m'a laissé depuis deux ans, et je compte vous faire voir que j'ai fait à tous egards plus qu'on ne devoit attendre de moi. Mes resources sont aujourdui epuisés, et nous n'en avons plus à attendre que d'un succès. Ou en trouverois-je de suffisantes dans un pays ruiné par quinze ans de guerre, pour fournir aux depenses considerables de votre armée et aux besoins d'une escadre, par laquelle nous attendions bien des especes de secours, et qui se trouve au contraire denuée de tout?" Ib. No. 20. Lett. du Sieur De Leyrit au Comte de Lally, 24th May 1758. Lally, however, asserts that he had received two millions of livres by the arrival of the fleet. Mem. p. 49. This at least is the account of the English historians. Lally himself says, that it was his own design to proceed directly from Fort St. David to Madras; but the commander of the fleet absolutely refused to co-operate with him; would go upon a cruize to the south, for the purpose of intercepting such vessels as might arrive from England; and carried with him the detachment which Lally had put on board to prevail upon him to trust himself again at sea after the first engagement. Mem. p. 57.