424 THE FALL OP DUPLEIX. chap, devoted a lifetime. The public acts by which that IX> interval was distinguished belong to the career of M. 176 4 Godeheu, and we shall treat of them under that head. Of the conduct of Dupleix during that period we will merely state that it was distinguished by a loyalty, an abnegation of self, a devotion to the interests of the Company which had cast him off, of which the history of the world gives few examples. It was replied to, on the contrary, on the part of Godeheu, by a spiteful arrogance, an anxious desire to wound and annoy; a determination, if possible, to ruin and dishonour the ex-Governor, such as could only have emanated from a mean and paltry spirit. Not only did Godeheu, as we shall see when discussing his public acts, reject advice by following which he would have established French domination on a secure basis, but he ordered his com- manders to preserve an inaction which saved the enemy from destruction, simply because action would have jus- tified the long-pursued policy of Dupliex. But it was in s treatment of the pecuniary claims of Dupleix on the Company that he showed the greatest malevolence. Unable to detect a single flaw in his accounts, finding that even the private invitation on his part of accusa- tions against the ex-Governor failed to bring against him a single tenable charge ; disappointed in the hope he had indulged of sending him home in chains, he resolved at all events to ruin him in his private fortune, and to dismiss him a dependent and a beggar. To a man so utterly unscrupulous the means were not want- ing. The examination of the accounts of the Company at Pondichery showed an amount due by it to Dupleix of between 6,000,000 and 7,000,000 francs (£240,000 to £280,000). As soon as Godeheu ascertained this fact, he forbade the commissaries he employed to pro- ceed with the question of accounts, compelling them merely to sign a certificate to the effect that the vouchers produced by Dupleix had reference to the
