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Rh the Fort Rock. He was there making preparations, the success of which he did not doubt, for the English were in the last stage of discouragement, when Dupleix, responding to his repeated requests, sent Law of Lauriston to relieve him. Law, whose conduct at the siege of Pondichery had attracted favourable attention, had but just returned from France, full of health and vigour. He was untried as a commander in the field, but his splendid conduct in a subordinate position had impressed the public with the belief that he would acquit himself well when he should hold the responsibility of command. Alas! It was the case of Berthier. The two positions require the possession of qualities widely differing. The general must be cool, careless of responsibility, ready to think and act on the moment. The subordinate need only be brave, prompt to execute the designs of another, intelligent enough to comprehend the drift of the orders he may receive. Law, excellently qualified to fill the second post, was of all the men who served Dupleix the most unfit for the first. He was hesitating, weak of purpose, vacillating, and fearful of responsibility. His first act on assuming command was to turn the siege into a blockade. Commanding, as he did, all the approaches to Trichinopoli from the Coromandel coast he believed it would be easier to starve out his enemy than to expel him.

Under ordinary circumstances his reasoning might have been sound. But in war a commander is bound to take into account the workings of time. Law had