Page:History of the French in India.djvu/541

 LALLY LANDS AT PONDICHERY 515 family ; a La Fare, and many others of the first rank.* chap. Besides these there were Breteuil, Verdiere. Landivisiau, ^ xn ' and other officers of good family and of the highest 1753. merit. A singular circumstance, which occurred before the landing, did not fail to be regarded by many, espe- cially by the sailors, as of very evil omen. On the arrival of Lally in the Pondichery roads becoming known to the authorities of that city, it was directed that a salute should be fired in his honour. By accident — it could hardly have been by design — some of the guns set apart for firing the salute were loaded ; by a greater chance still, five shots fired struck the "Comte de Provence," the vessel on board of which was Lally, three of which went right through the hull and two damaged the rigging It was a strange greeting for the new Commander-in-chief, and gave him, it would appear, some impression of the hostility he might expect to meet from the authorities. Lally had come out armed with very extensive powers. He was appointed Commander-in-chief and Commissary of the King for all French possessions in the East ; he was to command as well the inhabitants of Pondichery and the other French settlements as the officers and clerks of the Company ; " likewise the governors, commanders, officers of the land and sea forces of the Company who now are, or who hereafter may be there, to preside in all the Councils, as well superior and provincial, both those that are already, and those that may be hereafter, without making any inno- vation, however, in the settled order for collecting the votes." All the governors, counsellors, commanders, officers, soldiers, land and sea forces and all servants of the Company, and all the inhabitants of the French settlements, were directed to recognise Lally as Com- missary of the King and Commander-in-chief, " and to obey him in everything he may command, without any LL 2
 * Voltaire's Fragments.