Page:History of the French in India.djvu/342

 318 THE STRUGGLES OF DUPLEIX WITH ADVERSITY. chap, had resolved to beat up the quarters of Chanda Sahib. VIL For this purpose, a detachment of 400 men under Captain 175 o Dalton moved out of TrichinapalK on the night of April 12, hoping to surprise the native levies. Unacquainted however with the road, they found themselves at break of day in front of the strongest part of the French posi- tion, between the French Rock and Elmiseram. Dis- covering at once the danger which they ran of being crushed by the entire French force, they endeavoured to retreat without being perceived. The morning light, however, warned the French of their presence before they were out of danger, and the chances seemed all to be in favour of their destruction. But the sight which would have lent vigour and energy to an ordinary man, which would have been used by Clive to make his own cause triumphant, added terror and dismay to the palsied faculties of Law. Far from regarding the retreating English as men whom by an energetic movement he could cut off and destroy, he looked upon their presence there as an indication that he and his force had been subjected to imminent peril, from which they had miracu- lously escaped. Instead then, of moving to attack them, he rejoiced at their retreating of their own accord. His apprehension indeed carried him so far as to direct that, as soon as the English should be well out of sight, pre- parations should be made for an immediate retreat across the Kavari into the island of Srirangam. It would appear, indeed, that this movement had been for a long time contemplated by Law, for he had often insisted upon its necessity to Chanda Sahib, and had even mentioned it in his letters to Dupleix. But Chanda Sahib, a better soldier than Law, had not only pointed out the insensate folly of the movement, but had abso- lutely refused to join in it ; whilst Dupleix, though for a long time not regarding it as serious or possible, had pointed out, in the clearest terms, that such a movement would, more than any other, compromise his own force