Page:History of the French in India.djvu/602

 576 THE LAST STRUGGLE FOR EMPIRE. chap, appeared the most impaired, having constantly pnt them- , selves forward to every service ; and it was recollected 1761 . that from their first landing, throughout all the services of the field, and all the distresses of the blockade, not a man of them had ever deserted to the English army. The victor soldier gave his sigh (which none but banditti could refuse) to this solemn contemplation of the fate of war, which might have been his own." The scenes that followed the surrender were little creditable to the Franco-Indian officials of Pondichery. When Lally, directed by the victorious General to pro- ceed under an escort of English soldiers to Madras, was leaving the town in a palanquin, he was insulted by a mob of some eighty of the principal adherents of de Leyrit, two of them members of his Council. These ruffians, who had openly avowed their wish to despatch him, were only prevented from, executing their design by the presence of the escort. But when, two minutes later, Dubois, the intendant of the French General, and who had in his possession some most valuable documents, proving the corruption that had reigned within the town, attempted to follow his chief, he was assailed with the most furious menaces. Dubois, who, though almost seventy years old and nearly blind, was a man of spirit, turned round to reply to these invectives, drawing his sword as he did so. He was immediately attacked by one Defer, and run through the body. His papers were at once secured by the conspirators. Well might the French historian,* relating this incident — this crossing of the two French swords on the threshold of the city that had been lost to France by French dissensions — forcibly describe it as " a fit image and striking resume of the history of the last three years of the French in India." We may be pardoned if for a few short sentences we leave the direct thread of our history to follow Lally to his last end. Sent from Madras to England, he found
 * M. Xavier Raymond.