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Rh his judges if this was to be his treatment after forty-five years of faithful service for his nation in the East. He broke out into imprecation and abuse of the men who had passed the sentence. It was of no avail. He was led to the scaffold, and, lest he should address the people on his way there and endeavour to enlist their sympathy on his behalf, he was gagged and bound.

Dupleix, the Governor of Pondicherry, a man of unbounded ambition, and who would undoubtedly have become the master of the Coromandel Coast had he been properly supported, suffered from the ingratitude of his superiors. He was recalled, and his place was taken by a man who was utterly incapable of standing at the helm in such troublous times. Poverty and disgrace were his reward, and we may surmise a broken heart as well. It was at Fort St. David that Bernadotte, afterwards King of Sweden, was taken prisoner. He belonged to the garrison when the fort was in the hands of the French. The English attacked it under General Stuart. The garrison made a sortie, and he was one of the party sent out. Bernadotte had a romantic career, although he was himself of an unromantic turn of mind. He was the son of a French lawyer of Pau, and was destined by his father to follow the law. A spirit of adventure prompted him to run away and enlist. He went to India, and became a sergeant in the Regiment of Acquitaine. In the sortie he was wounded as well as taken prisoner. The commandant of the Hanoverian regiment, Colonel Wagenheim, took a fancy to him and invited him into his own camp, where he treated him with great kindness. When he had recovered from his wound Bernadotte was released in exchange for English prisoners. He rejoined the French army and rose rapidly from the ranks. When only twenty-eight years old he was made a colonel, and a year later he was put in command of a brigade. He distin- Rh