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 CHAPTER IV

The Flaw in the Machine

Dupleix had everything within his power. He had Pondichery, Kárikál, and Madras. He had inspired the Nuwáb with a wholesome dread of French prowess. The English, to the number of about 200, all told, had taken refuge in Fort St. David, a fort purchased by the East India Company in 1691, close to the native town of Gudálur, sixteen miles south of Pondichery. The fort was not strong, and a bold effort, well directed, could have secured it, for Dupleix could put into the field at least 900 Europeans.

Dupleix had many brilliant qualities. He was a great organiser, could take a comprehensive and accurate view of the political situation; was thoroughly acquainted with the weak and the strong points of his position. But there was one flaw in his organisation. He was not a man of action. He did not possess the power, granted in a marvellous degree to the man who was soon to become his chief opponent, of personally directing operations in the field. At the moment at which we have arrived he recognised that there was but one thing to be done to complete the destruction of the English, and that was to drive them from Fort St. David. Their expulsion would