Page:Dupleix and the Struggle for India by the European Nations.djvu/149

142 nature of the man, by his great talent as a commander, by his coolness and readiness of resource on all occasions. He had a most able assistant in Captain Dalton, whose Memoirs, published a few years ago, throw much light on the splendid spirit which animated our countrymen fighting in a strange country and with half-hearted allies. There was scarcely a man amongst them who was not a hero, and it is well that their memory, the memory of men who laid, in Southern India, the foundation of the wider Empire held by their descendants, should remain green and fresh for all time. For, after all, it was Clive, and Lawrence, and Dalton, and their companions, who foiled Dupleix. Had they not been better than the French officers to whom they were opposed, Dupleix must have won the game. He was their superior in his knowledge of native character, in his influence over the natives, in his powers of combination. But he was not a soldier. He could plan a campaign; could direct his lieutenants what to do. But he could not act amid the storm of bullets and the roar of cannon. In that respect Clive and Lawrence surpassed not only him, but the lieutenants whom he sent to carry out his instructions. It was this superiority in the field that foiled him. It had made Law surrender in 1752. It completely baffled Astruc and his successors in 1753.

For, pitted against Astruc, Lawrence proved conclusively his superiority. By a sudden manœuvre, Astruc had seized the Golden Rock, expelling thence