Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/138

130 family at Arcot, and the detriment which Chunda-saheb himself had suffered by the incursion of the Morattoes, were such as left no hopes of reconciliation in those who had contributed to bring about that revolution. The news of the battle of Amboor reached Tanjore whilst the English troops under the command of Major Lawrence were in the country, and struck the king with so much terror, that, to gain their friendship, or even to make them cease hostilities at this critical conjuncture, he would, if insisted on, have agreed to much harder terms than those which the English imposed. After the ratification of the treaty by which Devi-Cotah was ceded. Major Lawrence, leaving a garrison in that fort, returned with the rest of the troops to Fort St. David, where news had been lately received that a peace was concluded in Europe between Great Britain and France. The revolution at Arcot did not fail to create much solicitude in the English at Fort St. David; and the part which Mr. Dupleix had taken in it sufficiently explained his ambitious views: but unfortunately their own proceedings at this very time against the king of Tanjore destroyed the propriety of any protests against Dupleix's conduct; for they could accuse him of nothing, which they had not done themselves. Avoiding therefore any discussions on the battle of Amboor, they confined themselves for the present to demand the restoration of Madrass, which the French, by an article in the peace of Aix la Chapelle, were obliged to deliver up. Mr. Boscawen, with a part of the squadron, sailed thither to take possession of the town: it was evacuated in the middle of August; and the English received it in a condition very different from that in which they had left it. The buildings within the White Town had suffered no alteration; but the bastions and batteries of this quarter had been enlarged and improved. The French had utterly demolished that part of the Black Town which lay within 300 yards from the White: in which space had stood the buildings belonging to the most opulent Armenian and Indian merchants: with the ruins they had formed an excellent glacis, which covered the north side of the White Town; and they had likewise flung up another to the south side. The defences, nevertheless, remained still much inferior to those of Fort St. David, where the fortifications had been so much improved, that the East India company