Page:History of the French in India.djvu/496

 470 CHANDRANAGAR AND THE DAKIIAN. chap, mated their intention of proceeding with their whole _ force for the reduction of the settlement whose repre- 1757. sentatives they had been thus amusing. Events, in fact, had effaced from the minds of the English com- manders all fear of the Subadar, and had left them free to act as they wished. There can be no question, in fact, that Clive had accepted the proposition of M. Renault in the first instance, solely because he saw in that a means of pre- venting the dreaded junction of the French with the Subadar. But, on February 4, he attacked the army of the Subadar before Calcutta, and, though surprised himself, had made a demonstration which utterly dis- heartened Siraju-Daola. On the 9th he concluded with him a treaty. Thus free from his principal enemy, the thought came into his mind that such an opportunity for crushing the French at Chandranagar would pro- bably never occur again ; that it would be feeble policy to neglect it ; that there was yet time to do it, as not- withstanding that he and they were mutually agreed upon the terms of the treaty, the treaty itself had not been signed. There was but one obstacle. He did not deem himself strong enough to attack Chandranagar whilst there should yet remain a chance of his being assailed by the Subadar. He therefore, on various pre- texts, detained the French deputies in Calcutta whilst he should endeavour to obtain the permission of the Subadar to attack their settlement. The Subadar refused it. Nevertheless, fortune favoured Clive. Satisfied by the Subadar's refusal that an attack upon Chandranagar would be too dangerous to attempt, he prepared to sign the treaty. When, however, on the point of so doing, he met with an unexpected scruple on the part of Admiral Watson, who declined to sign on the ground that the settlement of Chandranagar not being an independent settlement, but under the orders of the Pondichery authorities, the treaty would require