probably a losing struggle with a power whose fighting qualities and stubborn tenacity of purpose had so often helped it to snatch a victory from the very jaws of defeat.
During those years of warfare beyond Bengal, the Governor-General had much to occupy and harass him nearer home. In 1780 Barwell sailed for England, to enjoy in the prime of his life the large fortune which he had amassed, quocumque modo, in India. Before his departure, Hastings had come to a truce with his old opponent on terms which enabled him to dispense with the services of his old ally. Through the agency of Sir John Day, the Company's Advocate, a kind of bargain was concluded, by which Francis pledged himself to give Hastings' policy a general support in return for a few concessions to the claims of Francis' friends.
Fowke, for instance, was to resume his former post at Benares, while a place of special dignity under the Nawáb of Bengal was to be found for Muhammad Raza. To his friends at home Hastings spoke of the new arrangement with a confidence in 'Francis' faith and honour' which after events were not to justify. Two months had hardly passed before his new friend gave signs of relapsing into his old obstructive ways. Various measures proposed by Hastings for the campaign against Sindhia were hindered or deranged on various pretexts by his perverse ally. Sir John Day once more essayed the part of mediator, but Francis shuffled out of his pledges, and boldly repudiated in
