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MUTTNY OF THE FRENCH OFFICERS. 251 ing when unexpected events, impossible to have been chap. guarded against, neutralised the effect of these nego- . Vr _^ tiations, and brought down the fabric of his vast plans. 1750. It happened, unfortunately for Dupleix, that a very bad feeling prevailed at this moment amongst the officers of his army. The sum of money received at Tanjur had been divided amongst those troops only who had participated in that service. Many of these had received leave of absence, and those who took their places, as well as those who joined with the fresh troops, grumbled most unreasonably at having been assigned a duty which would expose them to great risks without the chance of prize-money. For the moment Dupleix was powerless to punish the malcontents, so few were the officers at his disposal. He trusted, however, to their military honour to behave as soldiers and French- men in the presence of an enemy. But in this hope he was disappointed. On the very evening of the day on which the two armies had for the first time exchanged a cannonade from their respective positions — April 3 — thirteen officers of the French army went in a body to M. d'Auteuil, resigned their commissions, and refused to serve. This was not the least of the evil. Not con- tent with refusing to fight themselves, these officers had done their best to induce the soldiers they commanded to follow their example. By a baseness happily un- paralleled they had succeeded in sowing amongst the soldiers the seeds of disaffection and distrust. Even the sipahis in the pay of France could not see unmoved the sudden withdrawal of those they had been accus- tomed to regard as their leaders. Doubt and hesitation pervaded their ranks, and d'Auteuil suddenly found, on the eve of a battle which, if it were unfavourable to him, would be ruinous to French interests, that he commanded an army which was utterly demoralised, which could not be relied upon to face the enemy. Few men have ever found themselves in circumstances