92 THE RISE OF THE FRENCH TOWER IN INDIA. c hap. ness, showed him the supplies he had stored up, the guns ' , bristling on the ramparts, the drilled Europeans, the 1741. armed sipahis; he hid, in fact, nothing from him. He then calmly informed him, that so long as one French- man remained alive, Pondichery would not be evacuated. With reference to the demand of the Maratha general for tribute, he sent a message to him through the envoy that the territory occupied by the French possessed neither mines of gold nor mines of silver; but that it was rich in iron, and that those who occupied it Avere ready to use that iron against any assailants. The envoy left immensely impressed with the power and resources of the French settlement, and with the resolute bearing of its governor. It happened that on taking his leave, the Maratha envoy had received from M. Dumas, under the name of cordials, a present of ten bottles of liqueurs. Some of these he made over to his general, Raghuji Bhonsla, and he, in his turn, gave them to his wife, who found them so much to her liking that she insisted upon others being procured, whatever might be the cost. The in- fluence of woman is proverbially powerful. Eaghuji was most unwilling, after all his threats, to abate one iota of his demands against Pondichery. Yet the Nantes cordials had given the French an ally against which he was but a child. These cordials were to be obtained by any means, and it seemed they could only be secured by friendly communication with M. Dumas. The determi- nation to possess them led, therefore, after a good deal of circumlocution, to negotiations, which ended finally in a pacification. Raghuji was so charmed by the oppor- tune present of thirty bottles of these cordials, that he soon became disposed to forget all his previous anger against the French. He prohibited any pillaging in the neighbourhood of Pondichery, and he began to listen without anger to the reports which were made to him that in attacking Pondichery he had everything to lose
