Page:History of the French in India.djvu/546

 520 THE LAST STRUGGLE FOR EMPIRE. Directors in Europe — to find out everything through his own officers. Count d'Estaing, who first appeared 1758. before Gudalur, found it fortified on three sides ; he did not know, nor did anyone in the force know, although the Pondichery authorities ought to have known, that it was open towards the sea. Lally, on his arrival, was no better informed. He agreed therefore to accept the capitulation offered by the garrison for the third day, although had intimation been given him of its defenceless state on the fourth side, he would pro- bably have forced its surrender at once.* Still, on May 4, Gudalur surrendered. With that surrender began Lally 's first difficulties — none of them, it is proper to observe, of his own creation. Surely he had a right to expect that de Leyrit, who for eight months had postponed the expedition against Fort St. David on the main plea that it was proper to await the arrival of the Commander-in-Chief, would in the mean- while have taken the precaution to procure carriage for movements he must have known to be inevitable. The two finest regiments of the French army, still less the most rising of all the generals in the French service, had not come out to Pondichery merely to sit there at their ease. De Leyrit was well aware of this, yet up to the hour of the landing of the new general he had not made a single preparation. Although large sums were charged in the Pondichery accounts for carriage cattle, none were available ; there were no coolies, no means of transport, not even guides. The difficulty was not so much felt in the first march to Gudalur, though even then Lally, determined to move, and left entirely un- aided by de Leyrit, had not hesitated to impress the native inha bitants of the town. It was when Gudalur was taken, when the siege of Fort St. David was immi- European infantry, 25 European ar- to retire to Fort St. David, tillerymen, 400 sipahis, and some
 * Gudalur was garrisoned by 30 lascars. The garrison was allowed