Page:History of the French in India.djvu/272

 250 FRENCH INDIA AT ITS ZENITH. chap, horse into the camp of Nasir Jang, and, what was of far greater consequence, he was strengthened a few 1750. days later — April 2 — by the junction of 600 Europeans under Major Lawrence. The English, in fact, had resolved to take advantage of the check received by the proteges of the French at Tanjur, by using all their influence to support the rivals and opponents of those chieftains. Against such a force what was Dupleix to do] There was but one course, which even to conceive, it was necessary that a man should have been born with a profound and daring intellect. Successfully to encounter this force it was absolutely necessary that the opposing army, however disproportionate in numbers and deficient in material, should oppose to it a bold and resolute front. Yet how to infuse the necessary courage into the panic-stricken and mutinous soldiers of his two allies 1 This was a problem which seemed hard to solve. Dupleix nevertheless attempted it. First of all he stopped their mutinous spirit. This he effected by advancing from his own funds a sufficient sum to pay up their arrears. Their courage he endeavoured to reanimate by showing that he was not afraid to support them by the entire available garrison of Pondichery. Goupil, who had succeeded to Duquesne, having him- self fallen ill, Dupleix placed at the head of the con- tingent M. d'Auteuil, who had recovered from the wounds he had received at Ambur, and increased its strength to 2,000 men. The total force, encouraged and strengthened by these means, moved in a north- westerly direction from Pondichery, and took up at the end of March a strong position opposite the enemy's camp at Valdavur. At the same time Dupleix did not neglect those means which he had often used so success- fully, of endeavouring by intrigues and secret communi- cations to work upon the mind of Nasir Jang in favour of French interests. He was on the point of succeed-