Page:History of the French in India.djvu/410

 386 THE FALL OF DUPLE1X. chap, in the employ of Muhammad AH. With respect to the _ cavalry arm, therefore, the French had the superiority 1753. both in the number of the troops and the material of which they were composed. But in the number of Europeans, the nerve and mainstay of an army, the English had immeasurably the advantage.* But notwithstanding this real inferiority, Dupleix determined to make up by the rapidity of the move- ments of his force for its inequality in the matter of Europeans. In the leader of the Maratha, Murari Rao, he met with a man willing and able to second him in this mode of warfare. With him it was concerted that whilst the Maisurians under their Dalwai (prime minister) Nandaraj, should press the city of Trichina- palli — upon which Dupleix had renounced none of his views — he, with his own Marathas cavalry and the entire available French infantry, avoiding a pitched battle, should so occupy Major Lawrence and the English, that no opportunity should be afforded them of assisting the beleaguered garrison of that city. The fall of that place would, it was hoped, at once ensure the overthrow of Muhammad Ali and the supremacy of the French. In pursuance of this plan, the allied force of French and Marathas, under the command of Murari Rao and M. Maissin, marched from Valdavur on January 14, and intrenched themselves on the river Panar, near Tiruvadi, seven miles from Fort St. David, and in close vicinity to the spot in which d'Auteuil had defeated Cope and Muhammad Ali in July, 1750. From this place, which they fortified very strongly, they com- menced a series of harassing movements against the English, cutting off their supplies, capturing their forage parties, and rendering it most difficult for the are based on the memoir and corres- of Mr. Orme and Colonel Wilks. pondence of Dupleix, the narrative
 * The statements in this chapter of Colonel Lawrence.and the histories