Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/675

 (HAP. XI.] THE BRITISH ENTER PONDICHERRY. +l

On the IGth of January the gi'enadiers of Coote's regiment took possession a.d itc.i

of the Villenore gate; and in the evening Lally, who was apprehensive of tumult, anticipated the period fixed by delivering up the citadel. On the fol- lowing morning the British flag was hoisted, and saluted by a thousand pieces U"i>oi>"i»

_ _ _ rity of Ijilly

of cannon, being those of every ship in the road, of all the posts and batteries, in Pondi of the field artillery, and of the ramparts and defences of Pondicherry. There cannot be a doubt that the surrender was inevitable, as the provisions would not have sufficed for two days more. No fault could therefore be found with M. Lally for not protracting an impossible defence, and yet it was too evident that the inhabitants generally regarded him as the prime cause of their disaster, and would willingly have wreaked their vengeance upon him. On the third day after the surrender, when he was about to depart for Madras, about 100 per- sons, mostly officers, and also two members of council, assembled at the gate, and the moment he came out in his palanquin, assailed him with hisses, threats, and opprobrious epithets. Dubois, the king's commissary, on coming out an hour after, was attacked in the same way. Stung at this reception, he stopped and said that he was ready to answer any one. The rash challenge was instantly accei)ted by a man of the name of Defer, who at the second pass laid him dead at his feet. It was a barbarous assassination, for Dubois was an old man and short-sighted; and yet such was the feeling of the bystanders that his death was regarded as a meritorious act, and not one of them would assist his servants in burying him. There is reason to believe that this inhumanity was, at least in some of those who manifested it, the result not merely of personal hatred. Dubois was known to have taken formal protests against the alnises and irregularities which he had detected in the leading officials, and meant to submit them to the home govern- ment. That the knowledge of this fact had something to do with his assassina- tion may, without any want of charity, be inferred from the conduct of the registrar, who, the moment the old man fell, came forward and seized his papers. They were never heard of afterwards.

The total number of European military taken in the town amounted to Dispute be- 2072 ; the civil inhabitants were 381 ; the artillery fit for service were 500 pieces aii.ithe of cannon and 100 mortars and howitzers. The arms, ammunition, and military presiaoucy. stores were in equal abundance. Great were the rejoicings at Madras on account of this most imj)ortant capture ; but amid all these rejoicings a delicate question arose, and threatened to mar the harmony between the civil and the militjuy authorities. To whom did Pondicherry belong ? It was surrendered by Lally to his Britannic majesty, and so accepted by Coote. Mr. Pigott understood the matter differently ; and on the fourth day after the surrender demanded that Pondicherry should be delivered over to the Macb-as presidency, as having become the property of the English Eiist India Company. Coote demurred, and submitted the demand to a council of war, composed of the leading officers of the army and navy engaged in the capture. Their opinion was that the demand Vol. I. 81