Page:History of the French in India.djvu/601

SURRENDER OF POND1CHERY. 575 Leyrit, though invited to that council, assembled in chap. opposition the Council of Pondichery to draw up X1L articles of capitulation for the inhabitants. On the following day, the 15th, a deputation from Pondichery was sent to the English camp. The terms proposed by Lally were virtually terms of unconditional surrender, for although he declined to give up the town, as not having authority to do so, and because arrange- ments between the two Crowns placed Pondichery, as he pretended, out of risk of capture, yet he declined further to defend it, and agreed to yield himself and his troops as prisoners of war, stipulating only for the proper treatment of the inhabitants, the religious houses, and for the safety of the mother and sister of Raju Sahib. In reply to these propositions, Colonel Coote, declining to discuss the question of the agreement between the two Crowns, offered the French commander terms identical with those offered by Admiral Watson to M. Eenault at Chandranagar, and by Lally himself to the commandant of Fort St. David. These provided that the garrison and inhabitants should surrender, unconditionally, as prisoners of war. Coote would only promise, in addition, to give the family of Raju Sahib a safe escort to Madras, and to treat the garrison favourably. On the following morning the English troops entered the Villanur gate of the town, and in the evening took possession of the fortifications. The scene immediately preceding that last act is thus described by the English historian of the war, himself a contemporary, and a mem- ber of the Madras Council. " In the afternoon," writes Mr. Orme, " the garrison drew up under arms on the parade before the citadel, the English troops facing them. Colonel Coote then reviewed the line, which, exclusive of commissioned officers, invalids, and others who had hid themselves, amounted to 1,100, all wearing the face of famine, fatigue, or disease. The grenadiers of Lally and Lorraine, once the ablest-bodied men in the army,