Page:History of the French in India.djvu/455

 HIS TitEATMENT IN FRANCE. 429 It was on October 14, 1754, that Dupleix bade adieu chap. IX to the country of his greatness. Baffled as he had been in his large schemes, ruined as he was known to have 1754.. been by the measures of Godeheu, he was yet, in spite of the declared hostility of that personage, followed to the place of embarkation by the principal officers and employes of Pondichery, and by all the common people. Their generous hearts spoke out in the universal feeling of regret at his departure. Their grief was far more eloquent, infinitely more expressive, than would have been the smiles of a Pompadour ! Very briefly we propose to follow the disgraced Governor to his last hour. Before he had landed in France, the Minister, Machault, fearing, in the then state of European politics, the result in India of the recall of Dupleix, and hoping it might not have been actually accomplished, had sent to Dupleix a despatch in which he affected to treat him as Governor, Godeheu merely as Commissary of the King to make peace. This dispatch reached Pondichery after Dupleix had left it, though it had been expedited by the Minister in the hope that it would prevent his departure. His arrival, therefore, in France was looked upon in the light of a misfortune, and it appeared for some time not improbable that he might even be re-instated in his post. He was, therefore, well received and flattered with hopes of a settlement of his claims. As soon, however, as the intelligence of the disgraceful peace made by Godeheu — to which we shall presently refer — reached France, and the disagreements with England were consequently regarded as settled, the Ministry at once began to treat Dupleix as a man from whom nothing more could be hoped, but who, on his part, would importune them with claims. They, therefore, or rather, acting with them, the Directors of the Com- pany, at once changed their manner towards him, and absolutely refused to take his accounts into considera-