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HOW DUPLE TX USED HIS SUCCESS. 227 If, on one occasion, owing to circumstances of which chap. we have no knowledge, he failed to take advantage of a s ' great opportunity that offered for the destruction of the 1743. last establishment of the English on the Koromandel coast, few will deny that he made up for that one mis- take by the wonderful skill and energy, with which, as civil governor, as commandant, as engineer, he conducted the defence of Pondichery against a force that might well have been regarded as irresistible. Truly may we echo the language used on the occasion by the Directors of the Company of the Indies, and declare that if all his other achievements merited the thanks of that France whose interests he served so well, this crowning success placed him on a pinnacle far beyond the reach of ordi- nary applause. We can well imagine — we who have traced Dupleix up to this point of his career, who have noticed the manner in which he seized every occasion of exalting the power of France in the eyes of the natives of India — how eagerly and effectively he used the opportunity offered by the retreat of the English army to increase and magnify its effects. Messengers were instantly despatched to Arkat, to Haidarabad, even to Delhi, to acquaint the native potentates how the most formid- able foreign army that had ever landed in India had been shattered against the walls of Pondichery. The answers to these communications showed how thor- oughly he had mastered the characters of those whom he addressed. Letters of congratulation poured upon him from all sides. He received the greatest compliments on his success. The English were regarded as an in- ferior, almost an annihilated, power ; and the one result of this long-threatened attack was to invest Dupleix with an influence and an authority, such as had up to that time devolved upon no European leader on Indian soil. The siege of Pondichery had been raised, as we Q 2