/
610 lllSTUUY OF S)IA. [Book 111.
A.D. i7&r. the casualties were fewer than iniglit have been expected; Vjut both besiegers and besieged, while displaying abundance of skill and courage, were cautious not to expose themselves unnecessarily, and avoided serious loss Vjy fighting for the most part under cover. Lally v/as permitted to continue his retreat with little interruption, and retired upon Arcot. There we must for the present leave him, and turn to another quarter which had become the scene of important events. state of Shortly after Bussy had, by withdrawing with his troops from the Deccan,
the Deccan. relinquished the fruit of all his distinguished achievements, the intrigues which had long been carried on at the court of Salabut Jung, and had repeatedly threatened to overthrow the French ascendency, broke out afresh, and even proceeded to open violence. The soubahdar, who was a man of a feeble and indolent character, became a mere pageant in the hands of his brother Nizam Ali and Basalut Jung, who, though pm-suing .separate and opposite schemes of ambition, deemed it politic for a time to combine their interests. When Bussy annoimced his determination to depart, Salabut Jung could scarcely' believe him serious; and when he went to take his leave, the timorous old soubahdar, throwing aside all restraint, expressed himself in terms bordering on de.spair. He called Bussy the guardian angel of his life and fortune, and distinctly intimated that the day he lost him he would consider his own unliappy fate as sealed. He had good cause for his forebodings, for Nizam Ali, at first contented to use him as his tool, was bent on seizing his throne. In the course of nature he would have reached it without a crime, as he had been recognized as his heir to the soubah- ship, but he was too impatient to wait, and secured the object of his ambition by first imprisoning and then murdering his brother. These, however, were only the ultimate results of Bussy's recall; the more immediate results were manifested in the Northern Cii'cars, where the French had for some time ruled as absolute masters. The importance of their possessions in this quarter was too well known to be overlooked even by Lally, with all his rashness; and therefore, in the letter by which Bussy was recalled, he enjoined him to leave, imder an officer of the name of Conflans, as many troops as might be deemed necessary to insure their safety. Under ordinary circiunstances the nmnber left would have sufficed, but a danger not apprehended was at hand, and Conflans, whose military talents were of the lowest possible order, was totally unfit to contend against it. state of Bussy, in answer to an earnest application from Surajah Dowlah, had
Northern determined to lead a force into Bengal by way of Orissa, and with that view had marched north to the sea-port town of Ganjam, where he was deterred from proceeding farther by intelligence of the capture of Chandemagore. In retracing his steps he was bent on retaliating the injuiy which French commerce had thus sustained, and led his troops against Yizagapatam, and the other factories which the English Company possessed within the limits of the Circars. They were devoid of any means of effectual resistance, and were all captm'ed
■I
