Page:Our Indian Army.djvu/257

Rh manded the full execution of that article of the treaty which related to the French corps. But intrigue was at work to procure its postponement, and the Nizam hesitated; till Colonel Roberts, who commanded the British troops, marched them up to the French cantonments, and surrounded them. Raymond's soldiers at once dreading a conflict with the English, and discontented on account of their arrears of pay, rose in mutiny against their chiefs; but on being assured of the money due to them, and of future service under other leaders, they laid down their arms. Thus, in a few hours, without a blow being struck, was dissolved a corps of fourteen thousand men, having an arsenal filled with military stores, and a handsome train of artillery. The whole of the French officers were sent to Calcutta, from thence to be transported to England; the Governor-General engaging that, on their arrival there, they should not be treated as prisoners of war, but be immediately restored to their own country; their property was carefully preserved for their use, and their pecuniary claims on the Nizam duly settled, through the influence of the British Resident.

The Earl of Mornington having by these means secured the co-operation of the Hyderabad forces, and at the same time, by indefatigable exertions, rendered his military establishment efficient, determined to bring affairs to an immediate crisis. Before hostilities commenced, however, the Sultan was allowed time to avert them by proper concession; and, with this view, Lord Mornington wrote him a letter on the 8th of November, 1798, couched in a style of dignified remonstrance; in which he acquainted him with the knowledge he had obtained of his preparations for a rupture with the English, asserted the pacific dispositions of the latter, and proposed that the Sultan should receive Major Doveton at his court, to explain all causes of distrust and suspicion, and to establish peace upon a sure foundation.