Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/142

134 Mr. Dupleix supported his cause, solemnly promised to follow his advice, when at the same time he intended to act contrary to it. From the dread of lessening his own importance, as well as that of Murzafa-jing, he had carefully concealed from Mr. Dupleix that their treasures, notwithstanding the large contributions they had raised, were almost exhausted by maintaining so numerous an army; and fearing that the siege of Tritchinopoly might be protracted so long, that their troops would desert for want of pay before the place was taken, he had determined to open the campaign by the siege of Tanjore, which being ill fortified, he hoped in a few days either to take, or to reduce to such extremities, as would induce the king to pay a large sum of money to save his capital and his crown.

As soon as the army entered the kingdom, Chunda-saheb summoned the king to pay the arrears of tribute from the death of the Nabob Subder-ally Khan in 1742; asserting, that whatever he might have paid in the interval to An'war-odean Khan was not a tribute to the Mogul government, but a contribution to support a rebel. It is the custom in Indostan to make the conquered pay all the expences of the war; and Chunda-saheb adding to the account of the arrears an exaggerated account of the charges of Murzafa-jing's expedition into the Carnatic, made the total of his demand amount to 40 millions of rupees. The King, upon the first approach of the enemy, had shut himself up in his capital, and now seeing the storm, which he had for some time apprehended, ready to break upon his head, lost courage, and offered to pay a ransom: this was more necessary to Chunda-saheb, than either the reduction of the city, or even the conquest of the kingdom; for in the first case the treasures, as is the custom in times of danger, would be buried, and in the other no revenue, in the confusions of a revolution, could be collected for some months. In order therefore to convince the king of his readiness to enter into a negociation, he did not suffer his army to approach nearer than three miles of the city; and he requested the commander of the French battalion not to commit hostilities during the treaty. The wily Tanjorine knew that by protracting time he should increase the distress of his enemies, and in his letters expressed himself with so