Page:History of the French in India.djvu/277

 THE SKILL AND ENERGY OF DUPLEIX. 255 the French army from the runaway officers themselves, chap. These had hurried into the town on the morning of the. retreat, and alarmed the inhabitants with the cry that 1750. the French army was beaten, and that the Marathas were upon them. The first act of Dupleix, on receiving intelligence of a nature so different to that he had ex- pected, was to arrest these cowards. He then hastened to meet the army, to endeavour, if possible, to weed it of the disaffected, and to revive the spirit of the re- mainder. To this end he had recourse to the most stringent measures. All the disaffected officers were placed under arrest ; d'Auteuil even was brought to trial for retreating without orders. The soldiers were reminded that their retreat was in no way due to the enemy, but to the recreant behaviour of their own officers. This confidence in difficult circumstances did not fail to beget its like. The French soldiers felt in his inspiring presence that they had been indeed guilty, and to insubordination succeeded an irrepressible desire to be allowed an opportunity of recovering their name. But whilst thus engaged in restoring the discipline of the army, Dupleix was equally prompt in dealing with the enemy. This could only be in the first instance by negotiation, and we shall see that here he exerted the skill of which he was so great a master. Instead of showing, in this hour of his extremity, by any abate- ment of his pretensions, how fallen were the fortunes of Pondichery, he directed his envoys to make demands little inferior to those which would have resulted from a French victory. They insisted, therefore, in his name, that no one of the family of Anwaru-dm should be appointed Nawwab of the Karnatik, and that the children of Muzaffar Jang should be established in the estates and governments of their father. But they did not stop there. To favour their negotiations, they had recourse to those wiles which they had learned from the Asiatic princes, and which they now showed they could