Page:History of the French in India.djvu/190

 168 LA BOUEDONNAIS AND DUPLEIX. chap, same time that he would leave them prisoners to the English on October 15 — the day on which he had cove- 1746. nanted to restore Madras to that nation. We will not attempt to describe the feelings of Dupleix on receiving a report of these proceedings. To carry through the darling object of his policy, the destruction of the English power in the Karnatik, he had employed entreaty, advice, persuasion, menaces, and moral force — and all in vain. The determined pertinacity of his rival left him stranded. Not a single resource remained to him. His authority denied, his soldiers sent on board the admiral's ships, his deputies arrested and confined in Madras — his entreaties answered by cold refusals, his assertions of authority by a contemptuous denial of it — what remained for him to do I It was vain to appeal to Paris. Thence no reply could arrive within fifteen months, and La Bourdonnais could not stay fifteen days longer, without extreme risk, upon the coast. He was irritated and annoyed, not only at the dissipation of the vast schemes which he had formed, but at his powerless- ness to prevent any act which it might please the infu- riated chief of the forces, naval and military, to carry out. The utmost that he could do was to protest. This he did, in a temperate and dignified letter,* so soon as intelligence of the proceedings at Madras reached him. From the Superior Council of Pon- dichery to La Bourdonnais. " We learn by the letter of the Council of Madras of the 4th current, that you have caused to be arrested MM. Bury, Paradis, Latour, Largi, and Changeac. Our former letters, and that which M. Bury intimated to you, would have informed you that the Pondichery contingent not being under your orders, we had nominated a Commandant at Madras, and had established a Council there. Things being upon this footing, we might have demanded of you by what right, and by what authority, you have caused them to be arrested. But we feel the inutility of such a demand. We can now take no part with re- ference to all that you may do, but to wait tranquilly the issue of your proceedings. 4< We confirm the order to the Council of Madras, to the officers and troops of Pondichery, not to evacuate Madras, aud not to embark on board the ships, at least, until you forcibly compel them. But we tell them, nevertheless, to obey all your orders for the performance of the garrison duties of the place. We permit ourselves to hope that a ray of light will induce you to reflect very seriously."
 * Dated Madras, October 6, 1746.