Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/748

724 stopt, and said he would answer any one. One Defer stept out, they drew, and the second pass laid Dubois dead, who was 60 years of age, short-sighted, and always wore spectacles. No one would assist his servants to remove and bury the corpse; and his death, violent and iniquitous as it was, was treated as a meritorious act: his papers were immediately taken possession of by the register. It was known, that he had, ever since his arrival at Pondicherry, composed protests on the part of the king against all the disorders and irregularities which came to his knowledge in any of the departments of the government, and the collection was very voluminous; but none of his papers have ever appeared.

The total number of the European military taken in the town, including services attached to the troops, was 2072; the civil inhabitants were 381; the artillery fit for service were 500 pieces of cannon, and 100 mortars and howits. The ammunition, arms, weapons, and military stores, were in equal abundance. On the 4th day after the surrender, Mr. Pigot demanded of Colonel Coote, that Pondicherry should be delivered over to the Presidency of Madrass, as having become the property of the English East India Company. A council of war, composed of the two admirals, and four post-captains of the squadron, Colonel Coote and three Majors of the kinge's troops, assembled to deliberate on this demand; and required the authority on which it was made. Mr. Pigot insisted on the king's patent, dated the 14th of January 1758, which regulates the Company's share and title to captures. The council of war deemed the patent incompetent to the pretension. Mr. Pigot, as the shortest way, declared, that if Pondicherry were not delivered, the Presidency of Madrass would not furnish money either for the subsistence of the king's troops, or the French prisoners. This conclusion barred all farther argument, for neither the Admiral, nor the commander of the king's troops, were authorized to draw bills on the government in England for such a contingency. The council of war, therefore, submitted to the requisition, but protested against the insult it conveyed against the King's prerogative, and declared the Presidency responsible for the consequences.