Page:History of the French in India.djvu/478

 452 GODEHEU AND DE LEYRIT. chap. India, at the court of the Peshwa, as well as with x ' the various petty chieftains in the Karn&tik. In the 1756. treaty concluded with Godeheu, no special mention had been made of Bussy, and there had been a tacit under- standing that it had no reference to the affairs of the Subadar, who indeed had never committed hostilities against the English. Unable, then, to demand as a right the expulsion of Bussy, the English were yet de- sirous to weaken the influence he was able to exercise by his position at Haidarabad, either by undermining him with the Subadar, or by gaining new possessions for themselves on the western coast. The manner in w 7 hich the first was attempted, and how it succeeded, will be related when we have to refer to the operations of Bussy. But, before that, the return to India of Clive, with the commission of Lieutenant-Colonel and Governor of Fort St. David, gave the English an op- portunity of trying the second. Clive, under orders from the Court of Directors, had been sent in the first instance to Bombay, in order that he might be ready to co-operate in an expedition which they contem- plated in concert with the Peshwa against the northern parts of the Dakhan. Colonel Scott, the officer ap- pointed to command the English contingent, dying in Bombay, his place was at once occupied by Clive, and it needed but the orders of the Bombay Government to enter upon the contemplated movement. The members of that Government, however, regarding Godeheu's treaty as prohibitory of any such undertaking, hesitated to embark in it, until at least they should have re- ceived the opinion on that point of the Madras authorities. These had no such scruple. And, although they were ignorant of the views of the Home Govern- ment regarding the disposal of Clive's force ; although, indeed, they were not destined, at the time, to be enlightened — the ship which conveyed the despatches of the Bombay Government having been wrecked — yet