Page:History of the French in India.djvu/412

 388 THE FALL OF DUPLEIX. C ]^ P ' P ose ^ contenc ^^ n g parties at Trichinapallf. This city, after the surrender of Law, had been left by the 1753. English commander under the charge of Captain Dalton, having under him a force of 200 Europeans and 1,500 sipahis. An abortive attempt on the part of the Dalwai of Maisur to surprise the city after the departure of Major Lawrence, had resulted in his retiring with his troops to Srirangam. Here he entered into corres- pondence with Dupleix at the same time that he con- tinued to profess friendship for Muhammad Ali and the English. When, however, the junction of his ally, Murari Rao, with the French, and his stoppage of the supplies necessary for the English, left no doubt as to his hostile intentions, Mr. Saunders resolved no longer to keep terms with him, but sent instructions to Dalton to treat him as an enemy. The twelve months of renewed warfare before Tri- chinapallf, of which we are about to give a general de- scription, were fraught with the most important con- sequences to both the rival European nations then struggling in India. We shall see the genius of the two peoples displayed in the form for which each has for centuries been remarkable. The daring of the French, their activity, their courage, their devotion, will be found not less conspicuous than the obstinacy, the perseverance, the coolness, the intrepidity under difficult circumstances, of the English. We shall have to admire not less the address and versatility of Dalton and the vigour and presence of mind of Lawrence, than the skill of Astruc and the dash of Mainville. In one point, and that an essential one, the English had the advantage at the outset. Their European soldiers were superior in number ; they, too, had shared in all those conflicts which had terminated in the surrender of Law ; they had served under Clive and under Lawrence, and had learned under their able leading to believe in their own invincibility. The French soldiers, on