Page:History of the French in India.djvu/526

500 C 1 1 AN D RAN AG A R AND THE DAKHAN. chap, tion ; we cease to be surprised that his name should l ' have been invoked by all the principal opponents of 175(5^ English progress in Bengal as the name of one who was invincible, who would paralyse their onward march, and at some unexpected moment hurl them into the sea. We can but admire the tact, the judgment, the coolness, the address, and the valour displayed, not in the heyday of prosperity, but under circumstances most difficult and most trying : not when he had leisure to deliberate, but when the pressure of events was at its strongest, when upon the decision of the moment depended glory or shame. Yet, successful as he was, triumphing as he did over difficulties almost unexampled and dangers apparently overwhelming, it is impossible that a critical observer should fail to remark the immense importance to Eng- land of the events of those three months. When we recall to mind that the English were at that very time preparing for the re-conquest of Bengal ; that their operations against Calcutta did not have effect till the end of December, nor against Chandranagar till the middle of the following March ; that meanwhile Madras was denuded of troops, and many of the strong places in the Presidency were left to fall into the hands of the French ; that the news of the declaration of war reached Pondichery in November ; we can easily imagine the effect which Bussy, trusted by the Subadar and his court, secure of his position at Haidarabad and in the Sirkars, could have produced either in Bengal or at Madras. There would have been nothing to prevent him from co-operating with the Pondichery authorities against Madras itself, or from moving rapidly with 800 or 1,000 veteran Europeans through Onsa into Bengal. From making one or other of these attempts he was prevented by this three months' campaign in the heart of the Dakhan, and by that alone. Though victorious in that campaign, his confidential intercourse with the