Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/144

136 they assaulted one of the gates of the city, and carried it; but were nevertheless prevented from entering the town by strong entrenchments. However, this success thoroughly intimidated the king and he now, for the first time, entered seriously into the discussion of Chunda-saheb's demands, and ratified the treaty on the 21st of December; by which he agreed to pay Chunda-saheb, as Nabob, 7,000,000 rupees, and 200,000 immediately in hand to the French troops; he likewise ceded to the French company the sovereignty of 81 villages, which had formerly depended on the town of Karical, where the French had established themselves, and built a fort, against his will, in the year 1736.

We are not exactly informed of the sum stipulated to be immediately paid; but in these military collections the first payment rarely exceeds a fourth part of the whole assessment. The king paid the money with the same spirit of procrastination that he had employed in making the agreement. One day he sent gold and silver plate, and his officers wrangled like pedlars for the prices at which it should be valued; another day he sent old and obsolete coins, such as he knew would require strict and tedious examination; and then he sent jewels and precjous stones, of which the value was still more difficult to be ascertained. Chunda-saheb saw the drift of these artifices, and knowing them to be common practices, submitted to wait, rather than lose the money, of which he was so much in want. In these delays several weeks more elapsed; and the king of Tanjore had not completed the first payment when Mr. Dupleix informed Chunda-saheb, that Nazir-jing was approaching from Gol-condah, and advised him at all events to take possession of Tanjore as a place of refuge. But this news struck Murzafa-jing with so much terror, that he immediately broke up his camp with precipitation, and marched back towards Pondicherry.

Nazir-jing, little regarding the schemes of Murzafa-jing, but very apprehensive of the intentions of his elder brother, Ghazi-o-dean, to supersede him in the soubahship of the southern provinces, was advancing towards Delhi with a considerable army, when he heard of the battle of Amboor. The conquest of the Carnatic rendered his nephew no longer a chimerical adventurer, but a formidable rival; he therefore desisted from his journey to Delhi, and returned to Gol-condah, where he immediately