Page:History of the French in India.djvu/502

476 CHANDKANAGAR AND THE DAKIIAN. the French and English in the Karnatik, he dared not hesitate, when he had the means in his power, and when 1757. the occasion was propitious, to prevent for ever the possibility of similar contests in Bengal. He crushed Chandranagar, just as, we believe, had Dupleix been at that settlement, Dupleix uniting with the Subadar, would have striven to crush him. It was unfortunate for France that at such a crisis her interests were so feebly appreciated, that her representative at Pondichery possessed neither the foresight nor the energy to provide Chandranagar against a contingency that was always possible. The misfortune was fatal to her. Clive, freed from apprehension as to French rivalry, speedily over- threw the native powers in the country, not pausing till he had completed the conquest of the richest province in all India ; till, from Calcutta to Allahabad, the law of the English ruler was undisputed. Chandranagar, on the contrary, received her death-wound. Though restored to France, it has only been that she might drag on an existence replete with memories of former greatness ; that she might witness, powerless to prevent it, the exaltation and supremacy of the nation with which, for eighty-one years, from 1676 to 1757. she had contested the trade of Bengal. This was but one result of the policy of a nation which could remove a Dupleix to replace him by a man who succeeded too surely in infusing his timid and feeble spirit into his sub- ordinates. 1754. We left Bussy at Machhlipatan, engaged in settling the affairs of those four Sirkars, which the policy of Dupleix and his own great ability had added to the districts previously ceded to the French. There he was, and there he continued till the close of that year (1754). Godeheu, after many hesitations, had resolved to walk in the steps of Dupleix so far as to maintain Bussy and the French contingent at Haidarabad. 44 1 feel," he said in