Page:Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas.djvu/59

Rh army, 12,000 strong, and offered battle to the allies. His position was of no great strength. He had no advantages. He was over-matched in cavalry, in infantry, and in artillery. Haidar, old as he was, was eager to accept the challenge. Duchemin refused.

Why did he refuse? The fate of French India was in his hands. He had but to tell his countrymen to fight, as Frenchmen will fight, and, in all probability, Wandewash would have been the grave of the English. Why then did he refuse? It was an opportunity at which Suffren would have clutched, which the least of the generals of Napoleon would have made decisive. Unhappily for France, Duchemin was less than the least of her warrior children.

In reply to the urgent requisition of Haidar, Duchemin pleaded his health; he pleaded his instructions not to fight before the arrival of Bussy; he pleaded, not in words, but in a manner not to be misunderstood, his own innate incapacity.

Haidar Ali saw it — saw it with disdain. In compliance with the urgent solicitations of the Frenchman, he abstained from attacking Coote, and, raising the siege of Wandewash, retreated towards Pondichery, and occupied a strongly fortified position close to Kalinúr. But the loss of the opportunity chafed him. Such allies were useless to him. He determined to show them he could fight the English without them.

The occasion soon presented itself. Sir Eyre Coote, foiled in his endeavours to force on a battle before