Page:History of the French in India.djvu/578

 552 THE LAST STRUGGLE FOR EMPIRE. chap, after a stormy altercation with the Council of Pondichery, x * r A he was on his way at the head of 350 men, to rejoin 1759 his army. It was his desire to proceed at once to re- take Kanchipuram,but the low state of his military chest, the absolute want of all resources, and the bad spirit evinced by many of his officers, would not permit him to attempt any forward movement. He was compelled, therefore, to place his army in cantonments on the Palar, until the arrival of d'Ache, then shortly expected with supplies of money and stores, should place him in a position to resume the offensive. The English army followed his example. Lally himself returned to Pondi- chery, but he had scarcely arrived there, when the fatigue and excitement to which he had been exposed combined, with the disappointment he had suffered, to bring on a serious illness. This, however, did not prevent him from carrying out an enterprise which he had designed against Elmiseram ; succeeding in this, the leader of the party, M. Mariol, moved suddenly against Thiagar, a strong fortress about fifteen miles distant. The English guard- ing this were surprised, and the fort was captured on July 14. Amongst the prisoners were forty English soldiers. But although planning such enterprises as these, Lally was unable from the state of his army to undertake any- thing really great. No doubt his soldiers had to submit to very great hardships, but these they would readily have borne, had they been left alone. The spirit of personal dislike to Lally, however, which prevailed in the Council Chamber of Pondichery, had penetrated to the Franco-Indian section of his forces — those in the immediate service of the Company of the Indies — and the example set by these had not been without its effect on the royal troops. Matters were brought to a very dangerous crisis by a measure which in itself was a matter of the most ordinary detail. It happened, that after the raising of the siege of Madras, the English and French