Page:Dupleix and the Struggle for India by the European Nations.djvu/127

120 a previous occasion of the slowness and caution of D'Auteuil, but he was neither so slow nor so cautious as Law had proved. Dupleix was yet deliberating as to the action he should take, when he received a despatch from Law which threw him into consternation. Law wrote that, despairing of success against Trichinopoli, he had resolved to retreat into the island of Srirangam. The idea of the timid Law in an island liable to be attacked from both banks of the river overwhelmed Dupleix. He recognised that in the presence of men like Lawrence and Clive he would be as a rat in a trap. He could bear anything but that. He sent then on the instant a peremptory order to Law to retreat, if he must retreat, not into Srirangam, but on Pondichery. To aid him, he used every effort to raise a force to second his efforts. By incredible exertion he collected 120 Europeans, and, adding to these 500 sipáhis and four field-pieces, he despatched them under D'Auteuil to take the road to Trichinopoli, effect a junction with Law, assume the command, and fall back on Pondichery.

But he had not yet realised the full measure of the incapacity of his lieutenant. The position occupied by Law before Trichinopoli was so strong, resting as it did upon two points which could not be turned, that even Lawrence and Clive regarded a direct attack upon it as hazardous. They thought, however, they might create an alarm which might have consequences, if they were to beat up the quarters of the native ally of the French, Chandá