Page:History of the French in India.djvu/560

 534 THE LAST STRUGGLE FOR EMPIRE. chap, parently friendly. Lally had not only expressed his XI1 ' sense of the advantage he would derive from the great 1753 Indian experience of his subordinate, but on their arrival at Pondichery, had paid him the compliment of inviting him to a seat in the Supreme Council. Never- theless the secret feelings of the two men for one another were far from cordial. Lally, whose one great idea was the expulsion of the English, could not enter into the plan of a French Empire in the heart of the Dakhan, dependent on English weakness and English forbearance. Aware besides that Bussy, whilst maintain- ing the fortunes of France at Haidarabad, had gained not only a great name but an enormous fortune, he could not forbear from connecting the one circumstance with the other, nor from secretly including Bussy amongst the self-seekers* whom he had found so numerous at Pondichery. On the other hand, Bussy, distrusting Lally's capacity from the first, and noticing the dislike which the other could not conceal, bound too by ties of friendship and long service with the de Leyrits and Desvaux and other councillors of Pondichery, gradually and insensibly fell into opposition. Nor were his first proceedings calculated to make matters better. He used every effort in his power to induce Lally to send him back to the Dakhan with increased forces ; every day he presented to him letters from the Subadar to the same effect. This was the course best calculated to confirm the suspicions and sharpen the indignation of Lally. A mind constituted as was his, bent eagerly upon one point, could not tolerate a proposition, which so far from tending to aid him, went precisely in the opposite direction, and instead of strengthening, would have weakened, his force. He came therefore to regard the requests of Bussy and Moracin as part of the general • The Jesuit, Father Lavaur, had something more than the glory of more than once impressed upon Lally, the King, that in India, the officials worked for