Page:Dupleix and the Struggle for India by the European Nations.djvu/158

Rh discover themselves, they perhaps might have had time to execute their designs.' About this, we think, there can be no reasonable doubt.

This time the blow was fatal: it did not, indeed, come alone. The Nuwáb nominated by Dupleix to rule the Karnátik, Murtizá Alí, had been beaten at Tiruvannámalai, and another French partisan, Muhammad Kumar, had been annihilated before the pagoda of Tirupatí. But the defeat before Trichinopoli was the fatal blow. It was the finishing stroke which paralysed the French Governor. The one chance of recouping himself lay in a prompt accommodation with the English. Could he persuade Saunders to agree to terms of a settlement, no matter how disadvantageous, he might secure at least a respite. It was the more necessary that such a result should follow, as the news from France pointed to the possibility of his being made the scape-goat for all the mishaps. Dupleix found Saunders not unwilling to respond. After a tedious correspondence, it was finally resolved between them that Commissioners from both parties should hold a Congress at Sadras, a Dutch settlement between Madras and Pondichery. In accordance with this agreement Messrs. Palk and Vansittart proceeded to that place on the part of the English to meet there Father Lavaur, M. de Kerjean, and M. Bausset, nominated by Dupleix. The French Commissioners reached Sadras the 21st of January, 1754, and the Congress commenced work the following day.