418
jns'l'OlJV OF INDIA.
[liOOK III.
A.D. 174ti.
Fute of La- boui'doiinaiB.
a wi.sli to return to France, he found, even among the directors of the Com- pany on wliom hi,s skill and prowess had inflicted such heavy losses, a generous individual ready to become security for him to the whole amount of IiIb fortune. The very idea of security, however, was scouted, and his jiai-ole was at once declared sufficient. The short period during which Labourdonnais was le.ss the prisoner than the guest of England was the last during which fortune may be said to have smiled upon him The moment he reached his native shore, her persecutions again commenced. He had performed services wliich entitled him to the highest honom's his country could bestow. Instead of reward, only a dungeon awaited him, and he was immured in the Bastile on the 2d of March, 1748. Here he was left to pine away twenty-six months before he was per- mitted to communicate with the council, and though most of the charges made against him carried their refutation along with them, and the few which had any plausibility were proved to be gi-oundless, three years elapsed before his acquittal was pronounced. What could it now avail him? The judicial murder had already been committed; and, after a short struggle with disease and poverty, death came to his relief The inju.stice of which he had been the victim was afterwards formally though very inadequately recognized, by a peasion to his widow, the grant bearing on the face of it that he had died "without receiving any reward for so many services, or any compensation for so many persecutions."
CHAPTER HI.
Proceedings of the French at Madras — An attempt of the nabob upon it repulsed — The terms of capitu- lation shamefully violated — Unsuccessful attempts of the French upon Fort St. David — Proceedings of the English fleet under Admiral Boscavcen — Siege of Pondicheiry — The peace of Aix-la-ChapeUe.
Tlie Nahob of Arcot lays claim to Madras.
It the time of Labourdonnais' departm-e, Dupleix stood pledged to the restoration of Madras in January, 1747. Meanwhile his duplicity had involved him in a serious difficulty. When only anticipating the capture of the town, he had neutralized the threatened opposition of Anwar-u-din, Nabob of Arcot, by pro- mising to make him a present of it. This promise served its purpose at the time, and he had thought no more of it ; but the nabob was not to be thus duped, and on finding that it was not to be vokmtarily surrendered to him, sent his son, Maphuze Khan, at the head of an ai-my of 10,000 men, to take it by force. Dupleix was, or from policy pretended to be afraid, and proposed nego- tiation. The effect only was to confirm Maphuze Khan in the belief that his arms were irresistible. Without listening to the two deputies who had been sent to
