Page:Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas.djvu/36

8 Haidar, meanwhile, had communicated with d'Orves and had begged him to land the regiment he had on board. He had pointed out to him likewise all the advantages of his position, the fact that the last army of the English was at their joint mercy, and that Madras was guarded by but 500 invalids.

Never had France such an opportunity. It was an absolute certainty. There was neither risk nor chance about it. The English fleet under Sir Edward Hughes was off the western coast. D'Orves had but to remain quietly where he was for a few days and the English must be starved into surrender. Sir Eyre Coote saw it; Haidar Ali saw it; every man in the army saw it; every man in the fleet saw it, excepting one. That man was d'Orves himself. Of all the positions in the world that one which most requires the possession of a daring spirit is the command of a fleet. That Government is guilty of the greatest crime which sends to such a post a man wanting in nerve, deficient in self-reliance. Once before had France committed the same fault by entrusting in 1757, to the feeble d'Aché, the task of supporting Lally. But at least d'Aché fought. His feebler successor, d'Orves, was not required to fight. He was required to ride at anchor in the finest season of the year, a time when storms are unknown in the Indian seas, and see an enemy starve, — and he would not.

D'Orves, described by his own countrymen as a man "indolent and apoplectic," saved Sir Eyre Coote. In spite of the protestations of Haidar, he sailed for the