Page:Dupleix and the Struggle for India by the European Nations.djvu/141

134 adversity, of a dominant mind directed by a resolute will.

Reduced by the accident to the Prince to a position which any ordinary man would have regarded as one essentially defensive, Dupleix, feeling about him, set to work to ascertain the mode in which he could best neutralise the enemy's superiority in European soldiers. No more difficult problem could have presented itself to him. Since the victory of Paradis on the Adyár, Europeans had been regarded as the kernel of an army in India. Their superiority, maintained to the present day, was admitted in all the territories south of the Vindhyan Range. Bussy, with a handful of men, was maintaining that superiority at the Court of the Subáhdár. Thanks to the same superiority, the English, at the beginning of 1753, held a marked predominance in the Karnátik. But it might, Dupleix thought, by judicious management be so far neutralised as to procure for him a striking advantage on the decisive point. To this end he applied all his efforts.

Negotiating skilfully, he soon ascertained that he could dispose of the 2000 trained sipáhis and the 4000 Maráthá horse, commanded by a Maráthá chief of great ability as a leader, named Morári Ráo. As Muhammad Alí could muster but 1500 horsemen, and those inferior in all respects to the Maráthás, Dupleix, by this alliance, was able to possess a marked advantage in cavalry. The Regent of Mysore, too, displayed a readiness not only to furnish troops