necked martinet, who would burst out into thunderous fury at the least check or blunder, and would make himself so generally detested that his own officers would thwart him, trip him up, and foil all his operations for the satisfaction of ruining their general.
However, as the directors insisted, Lally was sent out with a force, which, in experienced and capable hands, would have been quite sufficient to have reduced, at least temporarily, all the Coromandel settlements, particularly if it had reached India twelve months before it did arrive. If the expedition, which was determined upon in 1755, had left France in 1756, soon after the declaration of war, it might have descended upon the coast at a very critical moment. For in June, 1756, the English had been driven out of Calcutta by the Nawab Siraj-ad-daulah, losing all their forts and factories in Bengal; and in October Clive had taken all the Company's best troops northward with the fleet from Madras to rescue his countrymen and recover Fort William.
When these troops were despatched, the Madras president and his council fully realized the situation; they knew that war had been declared in Europe, that a strong French force was under preparation for India, that whenever it reached Pondicherri, Bussy at Haidarabad would co-operate with Lally on the coast, and that the southern presidency would be in great danger if this joint attack were made while the troops were absent in Bengal. They decided, nevertheless, with remarkable promptitude and judgment, to run the risk
