most eminent servant of his country. The position he held was one exactly suited to the talents with which he had been gifted. When the hopes of France were at their lowest he had organised victory out of the crudest materials, and, in an incredibly brief period, had managed to re-clothe the French name with the prestige which the feebleness of Law had done so much to diminish.
Proofs of this followed upon De Kerjean's successful campaign. He received from the Subáhdár his formal appointment as Nuwáb of the Karnátik; from the Mysore troops and the Maráthás, so recently leagued against him, promises of active co-operation if he would but leave them free to prosecute their views on Trichinopoli. From his sovereign, Louis XV, Dupleix received at this time the patent of the title of Marquis.
All at once it seemed as though the positions of the French and English, so marked at the time of the surrender of Law, had been suddenly reversed. Whilst Dupleix encouraged his native allies to besiege Trichinopoli, he considered himself strong enough to detach a force to blockade Fort St. David. That force, commanded by De Kerjean, consisted of 400 Frenchmen, 1500 sipáhis, and 500 horsemen. But this was too much for the lion-hearted Stringer Lawrence. Rousing himself from his bed of sickness, he came from Madras to Fort St. David, and, with troops equal in number to those of his adversary, forced De Kerjean to fall back to within three miles of
