Page:History of the French in India.djvu/343

LAW RETREATS INTO SRI RANG AM. 319 and the interests of French India. When finally he chap. heard that it had been decided upon, he had replied, VIT - as we have already stated, by an imperative order to 1752 retreat upon Pondichery, and by the supersession of Law by d'Auteuil. It is difficult indeed to believe how a man in the possession of his senses could have per- suaded himself that Srirangam was a proper place to retreat upon. It was, in the first place, actually within long cannon-shot of TrichinapalK. In the second place, the fact of a small force remaining in an island, the river surrounding which could be crossed, was surely to invite an enterprising enemy to cut it off, — to force it in fact, unless relieved, to a surrender. To attempt such a movement in the presence of a Clive was a species of folly which that man only could have committed whose nerves and whose senses had been utterly prostrated. Of all places that could have been selected for such a purpose, Srirangam was, without exception, that one which most completely shut the door of hope on the force occupying it, in the face of an enemy strong enough to act on both banks of the river. Yet this was the place to which Law had resolved, not by a sudden inspiration of folly, but after many days of painful consideration, to carry over the French army. Yet, though the matter had been long predetermined in his own mind, he had made no preparations for carrying his plan into effect. Perhaps he had hoped that after all it would not be necessary. This at least is certain that, up to the moment when the appearance of the English retreating from before his own position brought so vividly to his mind the idea of the dangers that might be in store for him on the right bank, not a single preparation for that retreat had been made. Nevertheless, bent on effecting it, he sent to Chanda Sahib, and to him communicated his resolution. This faithful ally of the French received the intelligence with anger and disappointment. Not he alone, but his