Page:History of the French in India.djvu/572

 516 TUE LAST STRUGGLE FOR EMPIRE. xif* mone y seut out to tnem for the purpose of the war _ they often squandered on themselves. More than that, 1759. they took a pleasure, which they scarcely attempted to conceal, in thwarting his designs. To such an extent did they carry their ill-feeling, that they allowed their hatred of the individual so far to conquer the remnants of their patriotism, that the retreat from Madras was the signal for the manifestation in Pondichery of the most indecent joy. Is it credible that men who thus rejoiced over the reverses of the French arms, because those reverses humiliated Lally, would have made the smallest self-sacrifice to attain an opposite result? On them, therefore, mainly, and not on Lally, must rest the responsibility of the failure of the siege. Meanwhile, in another part of the coast reverses had likewise attended the French arms. We have seen how Lally, immediately after his arrival in Pondichery, had recalled Bussy and Moracin from the Dakhan and the Sirkars, and how these two, unwillingly obeying, had made over the government of Machhlipatan and the ceded provinces to the Marquis de Conflans in the month of August, 1758. The troops left with Conflans consisted of about 500 men, a number which, under a commander so experienced as Bussy would have been sufficient to keep the entire country in subjection. But Conflans had neither the ability, the tact, nor the knowledge of his predecessor. He was ignorant of the country, the language, of the mode of dealing with its feudal lords. Many of these latter, no longer sensible of a master's hand, noting the diminution in the number of European troops, determined to strike a blow to rid themselves of the French yoke, not cal- culating that by so doing they would in all probability exchange it for the English. It is possible, indeed, that looking at the balanced state of both powers in the Karnatik, they deemed it might not be an impracticable policy to play one against the other. However this