Page:Warren Hastings (Trotter).djvu/54

48 punish Haidar for withholding his promised tribute from the Peshwá of Poona. Against superior numbers and good leading all Haidar's strategy was of no avail; and nothing but the Maráthá greed for plunder saved his capital, Seringapatam, from certain capture. In his extremity Haidar appealed for help to the Madras Council. That help Du Pré and his colleagues felt bound to give. But Sir John Lindsay, who had come out as King George's Envoy to the Nawáb of the Karnatic, encouraged Muhammad Alí to take his own way in defiance of his English patrons; and the Nawáb resolved to gratify his hatred of Haidar by leaguing himself with Haidar's foes. On this point however the Nawáb gave way; but nothing could induce him to keep faith with the man he hated, and without his support Du Pré could do nothing for his sworn ally. Shut up in Seringapatam, without hope of aid from any quarter, the turbulent ruler of Mysore was driven at last to accept a peace which stripped him of nearly half his kingdom, and saddled his treasury with the payment of a heavy fine. He never forgave the English for what he considered a cowardly breach of faith.

As second in Council and member of a Select Committee for dealing with all the Company's affairs, Warren Hastings seems to have taken a moderating part in matters of foreign policy. His letters show how keenly he resented the interference of a King's Envoy at Arcot with the powers entrusted to the Council of Fort St. George. It was an evil day, he