Page:History of the French in India.djvu/246

 224 THE FIRST STRUGGLE IN THE KARNATIK. chap, "the study of mathematics, and especially of fortifica tion, which his father had impressed upon him, became 1748. now of great assistance to him; he was sufficiently fortunate to be able to recollect the knowledge of this nature which he had acquired, so that all his operations succeeded even beyond his hopes. 5 '* Fortunately for him, his efforts were seconded by the inexperience of the English admiral in military operations, and the con- sequent neglect by him of some of the first principles affecting the conduct of a siege. But even this incapa- city would not have interfered with the ultimate success of the English, had the garrison been permitted to give way to the despondency which reigned among them, in consequence of the death of the chief engineer. It was Dupleix who prevented this. It was Dupleix who, calm in danger, maintained an outward serenity and confidence that became contagious ; who, by the atten- tion he paid to all points of the defence, by the skill with which he strengthened the weak places and re- paired those damaged by the enemy's fire, speedily transferred to his own person a belief in his capacity that savoured almost of enthusiasm. It was, in a word, this civilian governor who became the life of the defence, the hope of the defenders, the one principal cause of the ill success of the besiegers. From the 6th of September, the day on which Bos- cawen moved on Pondichery, to the 17th October, forty- two days of open trenches, the siege was pushed with all the vigour of which the English leader was capable. But his efforts were thwarted by the skill and gallantry of Dupleix. Constant sorties, more or less successful, always retarded and often effectually destroyed the approaches of the besiegers. The English having, after much labour, advanced to the trenches within eight hundred yards of the walls, found that owing to the existence of a morass, it was impossible to carry them
 * Memoire pour Dupleix.