Page:History of the French in India.djvu/106

 84 THE RISE OF THE FRENCH POWER IN INDIA. °ni P ' * or( * °^ ^ e coulrtrv about Pondichery. However, before replying to the request of the widow of Dost Ali, M. 1740. Dumas summoned a Council. He told the members that, in his opinion, honour, gratitude, humanity, and policy, all pointed to the admission ; he added his reasons, pointed out the risks, and then asked for their opinion. The Council approved his arguments, and a decision was at once arrived at to admit the cavalcade. This was done with great state and ceremony. The garrison was placed under arms, the ramparts were manned. The Governor himself, in a magnificent palan- quin, and followed by his horse and foot guards, went down to the Valdavar gate. The gate was then thrown open. Immediately there entered the widow of the Nawwab, her daughters and relations, in twenty-two palanquins, followed by fifteen hundred cavalry, eight elephants, three hundred camels, two hundred bullock- carts, and two thousand beasts of burden. The en- trance of the principal personage was saluted by a discharge of cannon from the ramparts, and she was conducted by M. Dumas in person to the apartments he had provided her.* A similar hospitable reception was accorded a few days later to the wife and son of Chanda Sahib. t Meanwhile the Marathas, taking advantage of their victory, had marched upon Arkat, and had occupied it without opposition. Thence they sent detachments to pillage the country. But though the devastation they caused was ruinous and often wanton, the actual receipts fell far short of their ex- pectations. The inhabitants of the Karnatik had taken advantage of the first rumours of war to remove all their valuables into fortified places. Some had fled to Madras, some to Vellur, some to Pondichery. The account generally of M. Dumas' ad- Pondichery, but it appears from the ministration, are taken from the ex- correspondence of M. Dumas with tracts given in the Abbe Guyon's the Marathas that she joined her work already referivd to. husband at Vellur. t Orme states that the wife of
 * These details, together with the Safdar Ali also took refuge in