Page:History of the French in India.djvu/577

 DE SOUPIRE OUT-MANdJUVRED. 551 inquiry ordered to be instituted by Lally into the chap. accounts of M. Desvaux, the head of the department of 1 excise at Pondichery, and who had been accused of em- 1759. bezzlement. Other abuses, tending to the individual profit of the servants of the Company,* to the great detriment of the Company itself, which Lally had ordered to be abolished, had been restored. On March 8, therefore, Lally left Arkat for Pondichery, with a view to put a stop to these disorders, as well as to make new plans for a campaign. During his absence, the French army under de Soupire had been followed to Kanchipuram by an English force of about equal numbers, under Major Brereton, who had succeeded to the command which the gallant Lawrence had but then resigned. De Soupire's orders restricted him to fight only if attacked, and as he occupied a strong position, the English leader was careful not to risk a defeat by assailing him at a disadvantage. For three weeks the armies remained in face of one another, when Brereton, rightly conjecturing that to threaten his com- munications would be the surest mode of dislodging the enemy, broke up from before Kanchipiiram, and, passing it, moved on Wandiwash, and opened ground before it. De Soupire, pressed for money and supplies, marched then to Arkat, twenty miles from Wandiwash, and took up a position on the Palar. This was the opportunity Brereton had wished for. He hastily decamped from Wandiwash, marched rapidly on Kanchipuram, and stormed it before de Soupire had any idea that it was in danger. This was the intelligence that reached Lally, whilst, the administration were in the habit of the administration, after paying of issuing treasury bills, instead of the troops and the subordinate funo- cash in payment oi their liabilities ; tionaries in these notes, set to work but they purposely issued these in to buy them up for their own profit, such numbers, that they becnme thus realising- more than eighty per greatly depreciated in value, and a cent. — MSmoire pour Laity. bill for 100 francs was purchaseable
 * For instance: the members of for 20 francs in cash. The members