Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/342

336 army, who concurred in remonstrating to Mr. D'Aché the necessity of meeting the English squadron again, or at least of deferring the departure of his own whilst they remained on the coast. Mr. D'Aché returned the unanimous opinion of all his captains that the one was impracticable, and the other too dangerous to be risqued: however, after some mediations, he consented to leave 500 of his sailors and marines to serve on shore; and on the 3d of September sailed with all the ships for the Isle of Mauritius.

The detachments which had been sent from Tritchinopoly to assist Tanjore, and the attack impending on Tritchinopoly itself, if Mr. Lally should succeed in his views at Tanjore, had obliged Captain Calliaud not only to withdraw the guards of Sepoys stationed in the distant villages, but even to call in the garrison he had placed in the pagoda of Seringham, although under the guns of the city. The brother of Hydernaig, with the party of Mysoreans who had lately been driven out of it, had returned from Dindigul, reinforced with more, and were waiting at some distance to the west; and as soon as Seringham was evacuated by the English troops, they came on, and took possession of it again: but Calliaud, as soon as the French army retreated from before Tanjore, sent out parties to attack them, who with little effort dispossessed and drove them away. No probability then remaining of any intermediate danger, Calliaud resolved, as soon as his detachments returned from Tanjore, to dispossess the reigning Rheddy of Terriore, and to restore his cousin, the expelled Rheddy, who had long solicited this assistance, which could not with prudence be afforded, whilst the Erench garrison were remaining at Seringham. The vicissitudes of these two competitors had been peculiar. The French found the Rheddy, now expelled, in possession when they overrun Terriore in 1753; and then deposing him, appointed the Rheddy now reigning, whom they removed in 1755, and reinstated the first: but, being afterwards dissatisfied with his conduct, expelled him in 1756, and again reinstated his rival; who, from this last appointment had kept possession. The plunder of the adjacent villages between Terriore, and the streights of Utatoor, was the only detriment