Page:History of the French in India.djvu/141

 THE ENGLISH PROFIT BY HIS PROPOSALS. 119 have been enhanced afterwards by the prompt realisa- chap. tion of all his anticipations, he sent back the fleet. , With it, however, he sent his own resignation, with an 1741. earnest prayer that he might be speedily relieved. Why did he obey Surely it was not his fault that he did obey. But what cruel destiny was it that was weighing down the fortunes of France 1 A few favour- ing gales, a swift-sailing ship, an energetic captain, and the fate of India might have been changed ! Scarcely had the first keenness of the disappointment caused by the departure of the fleet been obliterated in the ener- getic action which now found a vent in the care of the colony, when there arrived at Port Louis a French ship conveying a despatch from the Controller of the Finances and Minister of State, M. Philibert Orry, authorising La Bourdonnais to retain the fleet, and expressing a hope that he had disobeyed his previous instructions. Cardinal Fleury, in fact, was dying, Orry was virtual Minister, and taking in at once the great importance of La Bourdonnais' schemes, he had sent out this ship and these instructions. Too late, alas ! for La Bourdonnais' hopes. The ships had gone, and there was no possibility of recalling them. It is difficult to imagine the aggravation of dis- appointment which this message from the new Minister must have caused. How many it would have utterly crushed ! How many it would have driven to despair ! But La Bourdonnais was made of a very hard material. He was not proof against all the attacks of fortune, for he, too, as we shall have occasion to describe, had his weak side ; but this disappointment neither crushed him nor stopped his action. Learning a little later that the Minister and Directors refused to accept his resig- nation, he calmly resumed his duties as Governor of the islands, and began at once to make preparations for a possible future. The French Ministry refused to accept the resignation