Page:History of the French in India.djvu/575

 forde's splendid audacity. 549 His difficulties, however, were not over. The long cftap. connexion of the French with Salabat Jang, the intelli- XIL gence that the principal settlement of the English was 1759> being besieged, combined to render the position of Forde dangerous and difficult. To the incapacity of his adversary was it alone due that it was not made fatal. Though virtually abandoned by his native allies, Forde, who thoroughly understood the conditions of Indian warfare, continued to advance towards Conflans, and notwithstanding that the French leader was enabled, by recalling troops from his garrisons, to bring a superior force of Europeans into the field, he actually besieged him in Machhlipatan. Rightly judging of the importance of moral force in war, he would not allow himself to be moved from this position even by the re- capture of Rajamahendri, nor by the intelligence that Salabat Jang was marching with 15,000 horse and 20,000 foot to overwhelm him. Nevertheless, as time advanced, his position became such as would have trieci the nerves of the strongest leader. In the beginning of April it even seemed desperate. Before him was Con- flans with a superior force, occupying Machhlipatan, which he was himself besieging ; on his right, at Bez- wada, forty miles distant, was the army of the Subadar ready to overwhelm him; on his right rear, a French corps of 200 men under M. du Rocher, prepared to cut off his communications. Under such circumstances, a weak leader would probably have endeavoured to re- treat, though retreat would have been disgraceful and fatal ; but Forde, being a strong man, preferred the chance of death in the attempt at assault to such a movement. Not knowing even that the breaches were practicable, but only in the hope that they might be so, he ordered his troops under arms at 10 o'clock on the night of the 7th, and delivered the assault in three divi- sions at midnight. He met with the success which a daring dashing loader can always look forward to over