Page:History of the French in India.djvu/528

 502 CHANDRANAGAR AND THE DAKHAN. chap, wives and children, and then threw themselves on the bayonets of the French, rather than surrender. 1756 # From these districts, by order of de Leyrit, he had despatched Law with 61 men into Bengal, to strengthen the garrisons at Chandranagar and at Kasim-bazar. It had been his own intention to follow him as soon as the pacification of the Sirkars had been concluded. This, however, could not be brought about until April ; he was then preparing to set out, when the fatal tidings reached him of the surrender of the French settlement on the Hugh.* Considering it too late then to start upon such an expedition, he proceeded to the reduction of the English factory of Vizagapatam. This he ac- complished, the garrison surrendering at discretion on the 25th June. The English factories of Madapollam, Bandarmalanka, and Injiram, situated on the three arms of the Godavari, near its mouth, surrendered likewise to his detachments. Whilst thus engaged, however, the intrigues of Shah Nawaz Khan had once more brought the affairs of the Dakhan to the verge of are volution. Intelligence of this reached Bussy at the end of the year, just after he had completed the pacification of the ceded provinces, and forced him to set out, without any delay, for Aurangabad. It will be necessary, before we ac- company him, to give a brief outline of the events which thus called him from his post. It will be recollected that the former Diwan, Saiyid Lashkar Khan, had endeavoured to instil into the mind of the Subadar suspicions of Bussy, and had persuaded him to imprison his two brothers, thinking that the French leader, interceding on their behalf, would con- vert these suspicions into certainty. We have seen likewise how the conduct of Bussy completely frustrated the three months' campaign, the ture of Chandranagar by the English events of which we have recorded, The struggle for empire would then and their consequences in the ceded in all probability, have taken place provinces, Bussy would have marched in Bengal.
 * It it clear from this that but for to Bengal in time to prevent the cap-