Page:History of the French in India.djvu/514

 488 CHANDRANAGAR AND THE DAKHAN". chap, the court of the Subadar. But Bussy knew well the XL difference between acting as auxiliary to an able and cap- it 75G. a °l e leader, the head of the rising power of India, and being the moving spring of all public matters in the Dakhan. To have accepted the Peshwa s offer would have been to isolate himself from his own people at Pondichery, and to throw the Subadar definitively into the hands of the English. Pleading, therefore, the necessity of first obtaining orders from Pondichery, Bussy, though with many expressions of friendship and goodwill, declined the proffered alliance and con- tinued his march. Balaji, to ingratiate himself still more with one whom he so highly honoured, and know- ing the hopes and intentions of Shah Nawaz Khan, despatched 6,000 horse under the command of one of the greatest of the Maratha leaders, Malhar Rao Holkar, to escort the French troops until they should be out of reach of pursuit on the part of the Subadar. In this, doubtless, he had a double object, for any attack made on the French whilst Malhar Rao should be with them, would give him just grounds for interfering in the affairs of the Dakhan, and he would then find himself fighting side by side with the French. But Bussy was not to be entrapped into hostilities. He accepted the escort, but at the end of eight days he dismissed it with many presents and protestations of regard. Scarcely, however, had the intelligence of this occur- rence reached the camp of the Subadar, than Shah Nawaz, who, from the fear of embroiling himself with the Marathas, had hitherto restrained his longing desires, despatched 25,000 men, under the command of one of his best generals, Mir Jafar Ali, with orders to attack and destroy the French. Instructions were, at the same time, expedited to all the governors and officers of the provinces to obstruct in every possible manner the re- treat of the French ; to hover around them ; to remov-