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20 would feel his way. It was too much for him even to take a straight look at India. He therefore directed the fleet upon Trincomali.

But Providence had one good turn in store for the French. Happily for the success of the expedition d'Orves died on the way (9th February, 1782). He made over the command to Suffren who had just received the rank of commodore (chef d'escadre). Suffren at once altered the course to Madras.

Before this event had happened, Suffren himself in his ship, the Héros, had pursued and captured an English man-of-war of 50 guns, called the Hannibal. She was at once added to the French fleet under the title of Le Petit Annibal. From the officers of this vessel Suffren learned, for the first time, that large reinforcements were on their way to the English squadron in the East.

Passing Pondichery, Suffren despatched to that town, in a corvette, Lieutenant-Colonel Canaple, with instructions to communicate at once to Haidar Ali the intelligence of his arrival and his hopes. On the 15th February, just three days before Colonel Braithwaite's detachment succumbed to Tippú Sáhib, his fleet came in sight of Madras. Anchored in front of Fort St. George, and protected by its guns, he descried eleven ships of war, —