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SAIYID LASHKAR FOMENTS FRENCH DISCONTENT. 373 them to some acts of indiscipline such as would embroil chap. them with the people, and exhibit them in an odious , light to the Subadar, but he trusted to it likewise as 1753. the charmed weapon by which he would procure the removal of their headquarters from Haidarabad, and their final expulsion from the Dakhan. He set to work, however, with great caution and with all the appearance of friendship. When he informed the French officers that he possessed not the funds to pay them, he accom- panied this avowal with numberless professions of the most profound regret, laying the blame on the tribu- taries who had neglected to send in their imposts. When, some time afterwards, the French officers, beset by their soldiers for want of money and themselves seriously inconvenienced on the same account, again complained to him on the subject, he went a step further. The state of affairs, he said, as to the non- receipt of the public revenue, remained the same, but, he added, the French were at liberty to take the law into their own hands, by moving against the refractory tributaries. These, in different parts of the country, distant from one another, he indicated ; nor did he fail to point out to the French officers the pecuniary ad- vantages which might result to them personally from such a mode of collecting the revenue. This pro- position, apparently so fair and even considerate, completely deceived Goupil and his officers, and some detachments were at once sent out. Under other circumstances it might perhaps have been difficult to obtain the consent of the Subadar to their departure, but the acts of violence and disorder recently committed by the French had even scandalised Salabat Jang, and he offered no opposition to the plan. But though the force had been thus diminished, Saiyid Lashkar determined to divide and weaken it still more. He persuaded the Subadar to return to Aurangabad — the city in his dominions most distant