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164 LA BOURDONNAIS AND DUPLEIX. chap, prove that conditions made under such circumstances — had never been considered binding, he added: "in the 1746. name of God; in the name of your children, of your wife, I conjure you to be persuaded of what I tell you. Finish as you have begun, and do not treat with an enemy, who has no object but to reduce us to the most dire extremity. Such are the orders which the enemy's squadron executes wherever it is able. If it has not done more, it was because it could not do more. Provi- dence has been kinder to us than to them. Let us then profit by our opportunity, for the glory of our monarch, and for the general interests of a nation which will regard you as its restorer in India. Heaven grant that I may succeed in persuading you, that I may convince you of the necessity of annulling a treaty which makes us lose in one moment all our advantages, the extent of which you will recognise, immediately, if you will pay attention to my representations." Meanwhile, the three Councillors, MM. Despremesnil, Dulaurent, and Barthelemy, finding their powers dis- avowed by La Bourdonnais, transmitted to him on the 27th, a formal protest against his usurpation of authority, as well as against the restoration of Madras to the English ; they sent also to the various commandants of troops copies of the King's orders conferring supreme authority in India upon Dupleix — a step to which, they said, they had been driven by the measures adopted by M. de la Bourdonnais in opposition to the orders he had received from Pondichery. On the 30th, the three Councillors made a second protest, and announced their intention to withdraw to St. Thome, there to await further orders from Pondichery. This was only the prelude to other and stronger measures. On October 2, a Commission, composed of the Major-General de Bury, M. Bruyere, the Procureur- General, and M. Paradis, arrived at Madras, armed with powers to execute the orders with which they were