Page:History of the French in India.djvu/512

 486 CHANDRA NAG AR AND THE DAK I IAN. C ^ VP causes. The English, who had nothing more at heart ,' - . than the expulsion of the French from the Dakhan; 1756. who, in the early part of this very year, had sent a force to the Bombay coast with the hope that it would be em- ployed with Balaji against the Subadar ; received, in- deed, the application of Salabat Jang and his Minister with extraordinary pleasure, and at once transmitted to him a most favourable reply. A force of 300 Europeans and 1,500 sipahis was ordered into the field ; it was on the point even of setting out, when there arrived from Bengal that disastrous intelligence of the capture of Calcutta, which compelled them to send every available man in that direction. From the English, therefore, Shah Nawaz received no aid. Nor was he more successful with the Peshwa. Balaji, indeed, received the project for assassination with disdain ; but he did not the less, for his own secret ends, encourage Shah Nawaz to procure the dismissal of Bussy. He felt, in fact, that as long as the Subadar should have in his service a leader so capable and troops so brave and disciplined, so long would the Dakhan be proof against the ambitious designs he had formed upon it. He was anxious, therefore, not only that the Suba- dar should dismiss Bussy, but that, the dismissal having been effected, he might secure his services for himself. He, therefore, congratulated the Subadar on his policy in dismissing Bussy, but did no more. The conduct of Bussy on receiving this abrupt and contemptuous dismissal from the service of the Subadar deserves to be studied and admired. Of all the courses open to him, he chose the wisest and most prudent, that which marked him as a man who knew thoroughly how to keep all his passions under efficient control. He was well aware of his own strength. He knew that with the 600 European infantry, 200 European cavalry, and the 5,000 drilled sipahis of whom his force was composed, he could bid defiance to all the efforts of the