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164 Godeheu, and the news that he had concluded peace with the English on the spot, at once changed the attitude of the men who ruled. He became then in their eyes an importunate solicitor for the settlement of claims, the payment of which would constitute a heavy tax on their resources. The report of Godeheu, that the claims had not been established to his satisfaction, strengthened their hands. They therefore declined to admit them, or to compensate him in any way. In vain did he remonstrate. In vain did he point out that he was persecuted by creditors who were creditors only, because, on his personal security, they had advanced sums to the State. For seven years he pressed his claims, supporting them by incontestable proofs.

He received not the shadow of redress. Nay, more. Men whom he had befriended, whose fortunes he had made, fell off from him when they saw that he was abandoned by the Government he had served so truly. The state of misery to which he was at last reduced can be realised by the perusal of the following record he made in his Memoirs three days before he died: 'I have sacrificed,' he wrote, 'my youth, my fortune, my life, to enrich my nation in Asia. Unfortunate friends, too weak relations, devoted all their property to the success of my projects. They are now in misery and want. I have complied with all the judiciary forms: I have demanded, as the last of the creditors, that which is due to me. My services are treated as fables, my demand is denounced as