Page:History of the French in India.djvu/382

 358 BUSSY TO 1754. chap, brought Salabat Jang to the persuasion that the safety of his person depended on the presence of the French 1751. troops at his capital, and that the security of his empire could be best assured by his following the counsels of the French general. The latter kept himself all this time studiously in the background. His secret in- fluence, however, was exerted to appoint as ministers of the Subadar men whom he believed to be devoted to himself ; and although he was more than once, as we shall see, deceived by the superior finesse of Asiatic intriguers, he never wanted the boldness and prompti- tude to repair every error, and even to use to the advantage of his country the opportunity afforded him by the attempts to weaken his influence. Whilst Bussy was thus employed in laying the founda- tion of French power at the court of the Subadar, the intelligence reached him of the alliance between Ghazi- ucl-dm and the Marathas, having for its object the expul- sion of the French nominee, Salabat Jang. Whilst, in all probability, Bussy would have preferred to pursue that task of consolidation which would have enabled him to employ the resources of the Dakhan in aid of the French designs in the Karnatik, he can scarcely have regretted the opportunity, which this threatened invasion seemed likely to afford him, of teaching the warlike inhabitants of western India to respect French discipline and French valour. Whilst, therefore, the news, that Ghazi-ud-dm himself was advancing from the north at the head of 150,000 and Balaji Baji Rao from the west with 100,000 men, spread consternation and dismay in the court of Aurangabad, whilst some coun- selled retreat, and others even entered into negotiations with the invader, Bussy himself remained calm and unmoved. When called upon by the Subadar for his opinion, he gave him advice of the same nature as that which Clive a little later gave to Governor Saunders — advice which stamped him at once as the man for the