Page:History of the French in India.djvu/525

 TRIUMPH OF BUSSY OVER HIS ENEMIES. 499 efface by his own dutiful conduct every recollection of oha.p. the past three months; that alone excepted which fixed, ' in the mind of the Subadar the conviction of French 1755, invincibility, of the absolute necessity of their presence as supporters of the viceregal throne. He therefore imposed no terms beyond the abandonment of Muzaffar Beg and the deserter Mahmud Khan ; he did not even stipulate for the removal of Shah Nawaz Khan ; he himself was to be received only in his former position as the officer in the Dakhan whose authority was second only to that of Salabat Jang himself. On these condi- tions a reconciliation was effected, and on August 20th, just three months after his dismissal, Bussy was publicly reinstated by the Subadar in all his titles, dignities, and honours. Never, perhaps, had any statesman been subjected in a similar period to a harder trial. It is scarcely too much to say that one false step would have ruined him. Yet, however narrowly we may examine all the move- ments of Bussy in this critical period, we shall be un- able to detect the faintest impress even of a turn in the wrong direction. From the very first he did what was right, though exposed to numerous temptations to do what was wrong. His refusal alike of the Maratha alliance and the Maratha aid ; his march on Haidara- bad ; his determination to wait there instead of moving on to the Sirkars ; his requests to the governments of Pondichery and Machhlipatan to order the reinforce- ments, not to cover his retreat to the latter place, but to meet him at Haidarabad ; his positive order to Law to move on ; his own choice of the Char Mahall ; the means he adopted to employ the main army while Law should be approaching ; his firm consistency in refusing every offer to treat, except upon the condition of abso- lute reinstatement — all these acts stamp him as a general and a statesman of the very first order. We can no longer wonder at his great influence, his greater reputa- kk 2