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 320 THE STRUGGLES OF DUPLEJX WITH ADVERSITY. chap, principal commanders, opposed it with all their elo- Vlr ' quence. Better far, they said, to meet defeat and death 175 2 * n open action, than to retreat to a position in which surrender must be necessitated. But all their remon- strances remained without effect on the paralysed spirit of Law. He would retreat, he said ; they might act as they choose ; and he issued orders at once to carry out his resolution. Chanda Sahib, though unconvinced, though despising the man, would not, at that dark hour, abandon the nation that had so long supported him. He might have escaped, but preferring to cast in his lot with the French, he accompanied them across the Kavari. Great was the confusion of the retreat. Not a single preparation had been made for it. The provisions, necessary for the support of the troops in Srirangam, were abandoned and burnt. Much of their baggage was left behind. The guns were with great difficulty trans- ported. However, after infinite labour, the French troops and those of Chanda Sahib found themselves in occupation of Srirangam, a detachment of the former only having been left to guard the rock of Elmiseram, which it would have been wiser to abandon with the rest of the position. The natural consequences of this movement were soon apparent. First ensued the capture of Elmiseram, effected on April 13, by Captain Dalton, after a faint resistance. Next, the movement which Dupleix and Chanda Sahib had alike foreseen, the detaching of a portion of the English army to the northern bank of the Kolrun, in order not only to cut off the supplies of the French, but to sever their communications with Poncli- chery. This measure was suggested to Major Lawrence by Clive, and the former, on consulting his native allies regarding it, found to his satisfaction that it met with their approval conditionally on the command of the English section of the force being intrusted to the con-