Page:History of the French in India.djvu/368

 344 THE STRUGGLES OF DUPLEIX WITH ADVERSITY. chap, greatest genius for war of that epoch. The strong, sharp, incisive blows of Clive were terribly effective 1752. on the besotted leaders of the French forces ; they were met by no counterstroke, by nought, in fact, but weakness and indecision. With a rough and determined hand Clive broke down the foundations of French dominion, infused a confidence into the English soldiers that never afterwards left them, and showed the world that the natives of India, when well led and when possessing confidence in their com- mander, are capable of evincing the best qualities of real soldiers, alike of courage and constancy, heroism and self-denial. But for this one man no diversion would have been attempted on Arkat, the English garrison would have remained dispirited in Trichinapalli, and, it is more than probable, would have yielded that city to the superior numbers of Law. But it was Clive that broke the spell of French invincibility : he it was who first showed his troops and the natives of the Karnatik that it was possible to conquer even the soldiers of Dupleix. He transferred, moreover, to the English troops that opinion of their own qualities in the field, which till his coming had been monopolised by the French. It was a hard destiny that brought to the overthrow of the plans of Dupleix, a genius so warlike, a mastery over men so unsurpassed. Yet, though unsuccessful, on the whole, in the Kar- natik, the victories of the French troops in another part of Indian soil, more than compensated in the mind of Dupleix for the calamities they sustained near the coast. French influence was still paramount, the repu- tation of the French arms still supreme, the power of the French governor still unquestioned, at the court of the Subadar. To gain that influence, to maintain that reputation, to increase that power, Dupleix had not hesitated to deprive himself of the services of his best, his only, general, even to risk his supremacy on the