Page:History of the French in India.djvu/444

 418 THE PALL OF DUPLEIX. chap, have triumphed. The last ally of the English, the IX Raja of Tanjur, was ready to abandon them, and not- 1754. withstanding the reverses of 1753, he still, in the middle of 1754, held a stronger position than ever before Trichinapalli. The famous grenadiers, who had borne the brunt of all the victories of Lawrence, had been killed or made prisoners, and his own troops, re- suming the offensive, and victorious in more than one skirmish, were threatening the possessions of the English and their allies on every vulnerable point. It had become, in fact, a question with the latter whether the English alliance was worth maintaining at so great a risk to themselves, at the cost of so heavy a drain on the resources of their country. But when the state of affairs was thus favourable, there came into action those other circumstances upon which Dupleix ought to have, but had not, sufficiently counted. The success of Bussy in the north, of Main- ville and his partisans towards the south-west, were of little moment so long as he did not also possess the con- fidence of his masters in France. In those days, when a communication to the Home Government could not reach France in a less period than six or eight months, Dupleix ought to have been prepared for the effect which the disasters of the previous year would probably have on a corporation in which a large minority was, as he well knew, already hostile to himself. It was the consideration of the consequences likely to follow a long record of disasters, all burdensome to the finances of the Company, that should have powerfully influenced him in his dealing with the English Governor. It is the more strange that he should have neglected to allow such a consideration to weigh with him, because he well knew the jealousy to which his proceedings had given birth, and he was aware that by success alone in India he could maintain his position with the Directors in France. Perhaps it was that he