TREATMENT OF LALLY. 577 on arrival there, that the hatred and fury with which he C ^ I P « had been regarded in India had followed him to France. . y '-^. Allowed by the English Government to proceed to Paris 1761. on his parole, he attempted to bring home against de Leyrit and his Councillors the charges with which he had threatened them in India. This movement on his part had the effect of uniting against him all the different parties criminated by his statement. Bussy and d'Ache, de Leyrit and Moracin, Father Lavaur and the Councillors of Pondichery — all made common cause against him. So great was the effect of the converging assertions of these different partisans, that even the Duke of Choiseul, one of the most powerful noblemen in France, advised Lally to seek safety in flight. But he, conscious of innocence, preferred to meet all the charges against him before the tribunals of his country. The proceedings were yet lan- guishing, when, in 1763, Father Lavaur died. This intriguing monk, to make sure of his own position, had written two memoirs of the events that had happened at Pondichery, the one favourable, the other inveterately hostile, to Lally. His papers, however, having fallen into the hands of the promoters of the accusation against the General, the favourable memoir was suppressed, and the other given to the world.* Strange as it may seem in the present day, this memoir was actually received by the Parlement of Paris as evidence against Lally, and was mainly decisive of his fate. Refused all legal aid by his judges, he was, after three years of lingering agony — fit sequel to his struggles in India — convicted, by a majority, of having betrayed the interests of the King and of the Company, and sentenced to be beheaded. A request, made by Marshal de Soubise " in the name of the Army," for commutation of the sentence, was coldly refused, and on May 9, 1766, transferred from his prison to a dung- cart, gagged and guarded, Lally was led forth to the scaffold — a striking example of the fate which, in the
- Yoltaire : Orme.
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