Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/512

 ■iya IlLSTOltY OF INDIA. [Book III.

A.D. 1752. the promises which Maliomed Ali had made to them — and the TanjorineH, but they bore him an old grudge, and would be willing to take an oj)[)ortunity of avenging it. It was known, however, tiiat Monjicjee, the Tanjorine com- mander, was at variance with the [)rime minister, and might in consequence be induced to piu-sue a separate interest. To liim, therefore, the overture wuh made. He gave his consent readily, and received a large sum of money in hand, with the promise of much more, and almost any advantage for which he chose to stipulate. The bargain was thus concluded, and nothing remained but to fix the time of Chunda Sahib's departure, when, on the 31st of May, on the arrival of battering cannon from Devicotta, Major Lawrence summoned M. Law to surrender. Monacjee, now pretending zealous friendship, took advan- tage of the summons to urge Chunda Sahib to come over that very night, and assm-ed him that every hour's delay added greatly to his risk. Some saspicion of treachery was felt, and Monacjee was asked for a considerable hostage. He answered with great calmness, that if treachery was meant, no hostage could prevent it, and that, moreover, the mere giving of a hostage would be equiva- lent to a divulging of the whole secret. He boimd himself, however, by an oath on his sword and poniard, the most sacred of all obligations to an Indian soldier, to send off Chunda Sahib as soon as he came into his quarters, with an escort of horse to Carrical. All this had taken place at an interview with M. Law, whose suspicions were still further lulled by a Tanjorine officer who told him he was to command the escort, and showed him the palanquin and other pre- parations for the journey. Chunda Sahib, who was waiting to hear the result of the interview, immediately placed himself in the power of Monacjee, whose first use of it was to put him in irons.

Surrender vi M. Law, after concludiuff the arrangement for his unfortunate colleague in

the French. .

force at arms, had no alternative for himself He was absolutely at the mercy of his antagonists, and had no hope except in the moderation of Major Lawrence. The French, he said, were not at war with the English ; and now that Chunda Sahib was a prisoner, and his army dispersed, he expected to be treated not as an enemy, but as the representative of a friendly power, and assisted to return in safety with his army to the French settlements. Major Lawrence replied that he acted only as the interpreter of the intentions of Mahomed Ali, and justified the terms which he proposed to exact by producing a letter in which Dupleix declared that he would never cease to pui-sue him while a Frenchman remained in India. The first summons to M. Law was to surrender at discre- tion ; a second, in more peremptory terms, demanded a decisive answer by a fixed hoiu", and added that, if the batteries once began to play, every man in the pagoda should be put to the sword. Ultimately, all evasions proving vain, M. Law resigned himself to his fate, and made an unconditional suri'ender. The whole force under his command, and which thus became prisoners of war, consisted of a battalion of 820 Europeans and 2000 sepoys. Their artillery were