Page:History of the French in India.djvu/166

 144 LA BOURDONNAIS AND DUPLEIX chap, accompanied his order by a promise, that should the . French at any future time obtain the superiority, he 1746. would place similar restrictions upon them. The event, which had then seemed so improbable as to be impos- sible, had now happened. The French were preparing to attack the English settlements on the Koromandel coast. Governor Morse, therefore, claimed at once the interference of the Nawwab. It cannot be supposed that a man possessing the Indian experience of Governor Morse was unacquainted with the formalities necessary for approaching an Indian ruler. It is, nevertheless, certain that he managed the mission to the Nawwab — a mission, on which the very existence of the English at Madras seemed to depend —in such a manner as to militate very much against its chances of success. It is a time-honoured custom in Eastern Courts that an envoy should never go into the presence of the Prince to whom he is accredited empty- handed. Whether the custom is good or bad is not the question. It is a custom, the form of which is kept up by the English even in the present day ; to neglect it, in the days of which we are writing, was regarded as nothing less than an intentional insult. But Governor Morse, in his blunt English way. as though he had been dealing with his own countrymen, did neglect this precaution. He sent his messenger empty-handed into the presence of the Nawwab, to remind him plainly of his promise, to claim for the English that protection which he had so recently accorded to the French messenger, well provided with presents, and who had returned to beg the Nawwab's permission to punish his rivals. It thus happened that, when the English mes- senger arrived, he found the Nawwab apparently un- decided, and though that nobleman declined to give any formal permission to the French to attack Madras, he refrained, equally to their advantage, from giving utterance to a direct prohibition.