300 THE STRUGGLES OF DUPLEIX WITH ADVERSITY. chap, minor and subordinate part of his great scheme. He Y ll '^_ , had strenuously opposed the weakening of the force 1751. before Trichinapalli for the purpose of aiding in any such enterprise. And when, owing to the fears of Chanda Sahib, the native portion of that force was temporarily diminished, he had reinforced it by 100 Europeans, chiefly with the view of enabling it to con- tend, without certainty of defeat, against the English. His hope was that, thus reinforced, Raju Sahib might detain Clive in Arkat until Trichinapalli should be taken. It was a well-considered policy, the success of which was seemingly certain, provided only that skill and energy directed the movements before the walls of Trichinapalli. We see then Dupleix, in this crisis, fully alive to all its dangers ; detecting the able conceptions of Clive, and taking the measures which, properly carried out, would have thwarted them. We see him, so far from being deterred by Olive's march upon Arkat from prosecuting the siege of Trichinapalli, pressing that siege with greater eagerness than ever ; at the same time that he offered to Olive's movement an opposition just sufficient to procure for himself time to carry out, unmolested, the great object of the campaign. We left Law before Trichinapalli at the head of a force of about 400 Europeans. All the energies of Dupleix had been from the first directed to increase the number of these to a strength which should be irre- sistible. Every detachment that landed from Europe, every party that could be called in, was used for that end. They were all sent off to the plain before Tri- chinapalli. So energetic was Dupleix, so earnest and enthusiastic in all he did, that in an incredibly short space of time Law saw himself at the head of one of the largest disciplined forces that had till then operated in the interior of the Karnatik, amounting of all arms to nearly 900 Europeans and 2,000 disciplined sipahis ;
