Goupil, who had succeeded him, was incapacitated by illness. The next officer, D'Auteuil, a good officer in a secondary position, was totally unfitted to lead in chief. Yet on this occasion, for want of a known better man, it was necessary to employ D'Auteuil. It would never do, argued Dupleix, to sit quietly in Pondichery, as if overawed, in the presence of an enemy within nine miles of the capital. There was but one mode, his long experience told him, of meeting Asiatics, and that was to affront them in the field. He could muster 2000 French soldiers and a respectable force of sipáhis, and the troops of Chandá Sáhib and of Muzaffar Jang were there. Upon this principle, then, he would act. Accordingly he despatched all the troops at his disposal, except a few for the routine duties, with instructions to take up a position opposite to that of the enormous force of Nádir Jang, and, if occasion should offer, to attack it. Meanwhile, he endeavoured, by the means at which he was an adept, to win over Nádir Jang to French interests.
Again did his weapon break in his hand. D'Auteuil, who commanded the French contingent, had planned a surprise of the enemy when, on the eve of the night on which he had decided to strike the blow, his officers announced to him that neither they nor their men would follow him. The unfortunate issue of the attempt on Tanjore, and the disappointment engendered by the failure to receive the promised prize-money there, had produced a discontent so deep-seated as to determine the officers and men not to
