retain Madras. To effect this end Dupleix exhausted all his powers of diplomacy. But the Nuwáb was thoroughly roused. He and his advisers felt that they had been duped, and they did not like it. The Nuwáb continued then his preparations, and sent his son, Máphúz Khán to lead against Fort St. George the levies he had raised. Dupleix, resolved to retain it, sent instructions to Desprémesnil to defend Fort St. George at all hazards, promising him a speedy reinforcement. Máphúz Khán, at the head of 10,000 men, mostly cavalry, had appeared before Madras about the 25th of October, and a few days later reduced the garrison of about 500 men to great extremities by cutting off their water supply. To recover the springs Desprémesnil ordered, on the 2nd of November, a sally of 400 men accompanied by two field-pieces. It was the first contest between the European settlers and the soldiers of the soil, and it was a type of all that were to follow. The two guns did the business. The natives had been accustomed to long intervals between each discharge. They were not disconcerted then by the opening fire. But the almost immediate discharge of the same guns surprised, the third frightened them, and they fled in dismay. They had lost 70 men, the French had not a single man wounded.
But in a few hours the panic in the Nuwáb's camp subsided, and when scouts informed Máphúz Khán that a relieving French force, consisting of but 230 Europeans and 700 sipáhis, without a single gun, was
