Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/76

68 for two hours, during the conference of another deputy sent from the town; after which it continued during the rest of the night.

The next morning, the 10th of September, the deputies returned to the French camp, and, after some altercations, consented to the articles of capitulation, which had been dictated to them in the first conference. It was agreed that the English should surrender themselves prisoners of war: that the town should be immediately delivered up; but that it should be afterwards ransomed. Mr. De la Bourdonnais gave his promise that he would settle the ransom on easy and moderate terms.

The capitulation was signed in the afternoon, when' Mr. de la Bourdonnais, at the head of a large body of troops, marched to the gates, where he received the keys from the governor. The French colours were immediately displayed; and, at the same time, the English ship belonging to the East India company, which lay in the road, was taken possession of without resistance by the boats of the French sauadron. There was not a man killed in the French camp during the siege; four or five Englishmen were killed in the town by the explosion of the bombs, which likewise destroyed two or three houses. From this period it is useful to contemplate the progress made by the English in Indostan, both in the science and spirit of war.

The English inhabitants were permitted to reside without molestation in their houses; but the magazines and ware-houses belonging to the East India company were taken possession of by the French commissaries. On the day in which Madrass was surrendered, a messenger from the Nabob An'war-odean Khan, dispatched for more expedition on a camel, arrived at Pondicherry, and delivered to Mr. Dupleix a letter, in which the Nabob expressed great surprize at the presumption of the French in attacking Madrass without his permission, and threatened to send his army there, if the siege was not immediately raised. Mr. Dupleix sent directions to his agent at Arcot to pacify the Nabob, by promising that the town, if taken, should be given up to him;