Page:History of the French in India.djvu/348

 324 THE STRUGGLES OF DUPLEIX WITH ADVERSITY. chap, be his own, and ordered them to cease fire. He did V11, not even discover his mistake when one of them, 1752. ascertaining him to be an Englishman, wounded him in two places, and then, when attacked by Clive, ran towards the lesser pagoda. Clive followed him, only however to find himself in the presence of six French soldiers, who called upon him to surrender. Then, for the first time, the whole truth burst upon him. Comprehending it all in a moment, he called upon the Frenchmen to yield in their turn ; told them he had even come to offer them terms, and invited them to see for themselves his whole army drawn up to attack them. Completely deceived by his bold and ready artifice, three of the Frenchmen at once laid down their arms ; the remainder communicated Clive's terms to the party in the larger pagoda. These, however, refused to surrender, and it was not till after a most sanguinary contest, in the course of which Clive had another narrow escape, caused mainly by the desperation of the English deserters, that they yielded to terms. The French sipahis, meanwhile, had marched out of camp, but they were pursued by the Maratha cavalry and cut to pieces, it is said, literally to a man. After this repulse the situation of the French in Srirangam became desperate indeed. Entirely to cut them off from all relief, as well as from all hope of escape, possession was taken by the Tanjurian allies of the English of Koiladi on May 7. There then re- mained only M. d'Auteuil with whom to deal. To rid that part of the country of him, Major Lawrence, on the 20th, despatched Captain Dalton at the head of 150 Europeans, 400 sipahis, 500 Marathas, and four field-pieces, — leaving Clive's detachment entire at Samiaveram. Meanwhile, d'Auteuil, scared by the ill-result of his attempt to turn Samiaveram, and of the well-meant but ill-supported attempt of the Srirangam party to surprise