Page:History of the French in India.djvu/494

 468 CHANDRANAGAR AND THE DAKHAtf. yet unite with the Subadar and, by this union, not only baffle his designs on themselves, but crush the attempt permanently to re-occupy Calcutta. It was not, there- fore, the time to publish to his enemies all that he had in his heart. It was his part rather, under such cir- cumstances, to temporise, to watch carefully the course of events, and to suffer no opportunity to escape him. The Subadar, meanwhile, furious at the loss of Cal- cutta and the destruction of the town of Hugli, hastily assembled an army of 10,000 foot and 15,000 horse, and marched to recover the retaken city of the English. He sent at the same time to the French chief, M. Renault, and invited him in the most pressing terms to join with him in crushing the nation that was as much the enemy of the French as of himself. Renault, for his part, was in a situation of very great perplexity. He knew too well that war had broken out,* but it was a question, and a most difficult one, whether with his 146 Europeans, of whom 45 were invalids, he should aid the Subadar, or endeavour to arrange a treaty of neutrality with the English. The former course would lead, in the case of the Subadar's failure, to the certain capture of Chandranagar ; he had, besides, received the most positive orders from de Leyrit in no case to attack the English. Would it not then, he argued, be a sounder policy to endeavour to win tures that the French may not have known that war had been declared. His conjecture, however, is entirely- unfounded, Through the courtesy of M. Derussat, the chief in 1867 of the French establishments in Bengal, we are able to prt sent to our readers the translation of an extract from the registers of the proceedings of the "Conseil de Fabrique " for 1757, which is decisive as to the fact that the French knew of the declaration of war on Jaouary 2, 1757, the date on which it was first known to the English. The minutes of the pro- ceedings run as follows: "Thus things remained till the beginning of January, 1757. Then M. Renault and his council, learning that war had been declared between France and England, fearing to be attacked and to lose the place by means of the church and the parsonage which commanded it, assembled a council of war on January 2, iu which it was resolved and decreed to begin the demolition of both on that very day, and that until the new house and the new church should be fit for use, they would," &c, &c There cannot then be the shadow of a doubt that the French knew of the declaration of war on January 2, 1757.
 * Professor H. H. Wilson conjec-