bussy's influence at aurangabad. 357 necessity that he should be accompanied by a body of C ^J- Frenchmen so urgent, the peace of the Karnatik so ' assured — that there seemed but small necessity for the 1751. services on the spot of a Bussy. To Dupleix it must have appeared as if he incurred a very small and a very distant risk, in order at once to grasp a very present and very certain gain — a gain which must have an enormous effect on the result of any future struggles in the Karnatik. Can we even blame him much, if he, look- ing into the future with but human eyesight, decided to run that small risk I The prospect, indeed, was so peculiarly alluring to a brilliant imagination, that Dupleix would not have been Dupleix had he decided to neglect or to defer it. As it was, everything seemed at first to favour the daring plans of the French governor. He could not certainly have been more fitly or more ably represented than by the clever and versatile Bussy. We have already noticed the skilful and unobtrusive manner in which this officer disposed his soldiers in Aurangabad. His own conduct was based upon the same principle. To appear as nothing, yet to be everything in the State ; to show himself to the world as the commandant of the French contingent, maintaining in the eyes of the natives by his lavish expenditure and outward show the dignity of that office ; to direct in secret all the foreign relations of the Government, to make all their acts chime in with French interests. In this manner he laid the foundations of an influence destined to survive the loss of power and prestige at Pondichery, and which, had that power and that prestige not fallen, would, in all probability, have worked with a most decisive effect on the events that were to follow. From the date of the arrival of Bussy in Aurangabad, on June 29, 1751, all his efforts were directed to the establishment of this occult influence. He entirely succeeded. Very little time elapsed before he had
