Page:History of the French in India.djvu/178

 156 LA BOURDONNAIS AND DUFLEIX. chap, could not then have failed to impress him with the IV '._ . belief, that, in all probability, an opportunity would be 1746. afforded to the English of renewing the attempt under more favourable conditions. What then formed his chance of success at such a conjuncture Surely there was but one. It was to adopt that policy, even then consecrated by genius, the policy of Alexander, of Hannibal, of Gustavus — to carry the war into the enemy's country, and to use the means, which had been so wonderfully, so unexpectedly, placed at his disposal, to crush him at once and for ever. Madras in his hands, Fort St. David could scarcely hold out, and then, secure of the Koromandel coast, it might be possible to despatch a fleet to Bengal, to destroy the colony which had rivalled, and was now threatening to surpass, his own tenderly nursed settle- ment of Chandranagar. Such being his views, his mortification may be well conceived, when he learned that notwithstanding his previous warnings, notwithstanding the positive ar- rangement he had made with the Nawwab, La Bour- donnais was still harping upon the ransom of the place which he had conquered. The result of this he felt could only be, that the moment the English fleet should recover its former superiority in the Indian seas — an event daily dreaded alike by Dupleix and La Bour- donnais — an attempt would promptly be made to sub- iect Pondichery to the fate of Madras, an attempt of which, if successful, the English would undoubtedly take the fullest advantage. Impressed with these ideas, he wrote on September 25, a letter to La Bourdonnais, in which, whilst re- minding him that according to the orders of the Minis- ter, he was subject to the authority of the Superior Council of Pondichery, he pressed upon him the necessity of abandoning all notion of ransom. " The ransom which you are thinking of demanding from