Page:History of the French in India.djvu/232

 210 THE FIRST STRUGGLE IN THE KARNATIK. chap. February. In February he would have had the Eng- '_, lish garrison, then having received no reinforcement 1747. and destitute of supplies, to deal with. But, on the morning of March 14, as, before making his advance against the fort, he cast his eyes over the sea, the sight of several vessels, evidently vessels of war, sailing from the north, met his anxious gaze. Who could these strangers be ? Not Dordelin and his ships, for Dordelin, he knew, was well on his way to Goa. They could scarcely even be French, for the French had but one vessel in the Madras roads. Who could they be, he felt, but the reinforced squadron of Peyton'? His un- certainty, if he felt any, did not last long. The hoisting of the Union Jack soon told him that the third ex- pedition against Fort St. David had failed. It was, indeed, the long expected, long dreaded squad- ron, reinforced by two ships, one of sixty, one of forty guns, and what was of equal consequence, strengthened by the arrival of a new commander. This officer, Ad- miral Griffin, learning at Calcutta the danger which threatened Fort St. David, had sailed without delay to its succour, and thus arrived in time to save it and the English garrison from the fate by which both were threatened. He brought with him as a permanent re- inforcement a hundred Europeans from Bengal, but the sailors on board the squadron were capable of affording still more efficient aid. Under such circumstances but one course remained to Paradis. The arrival of this fleet endangered the safety of Pondichery. His little army constituted the main strength of that place, as well for defence as for attack. Thither, accordingly, he must return. He made up his mind at once, and before the English had recovered from the reaction of joy which the arrival of their ships produced amongst them, he had re-crossed the Panar, and was well on his way to Ariakupum. There he arrived the same evening. A few days after,