PONDICHERRY. 
375 
quently held in detestation by them. Dupleix had destroyed their 
temples ; Lally had forced them to work in the trenches, and 
do other military duty contrary to their cast ; and the Govern- 
ment itself had uniformly prohibited the residence of a single 
family, which was not Christian, within its boundaries. To this 
intolerant spirit, I cannot but in a great degree attribute the decline 
of the French power, and to a contrary conduct, the elevation of 
the British on its ruins. The memory of what the French were, 
still exists in the minds of the natives, and renders the success of 
their intrigues much more difficult. Whatever were the plans or 
hopes of Bonaparte, the war put an end to them. Admiral Linois 
had earlier intelligence of that event than Admiral Rainier, and 
thinking no time was to be lost, slipped his cables in the night and 
fled to the Isle of France, leaving behind forty officers, and the 
whole of the civil servants who had landed on his arrival. He 
took with him all the generals, in consequence of which the com^ 
mand devolved on Binot, who had the rank of Brigadier-general, 
w ith whom the arrangements for the surrender of the place were 
continued till the Madras Government received the intelligence of 
hostilities having commenced, when Colonel Money penny, with 
the 73d regiment, was ordered to march to Fondicherry, and act 
in conjunction with Colonel Cullen, who was already there as 
British Commissioner. He arrived there in the night, when all the 
French were in their beds, and might have been taken prisoners 
without the least difficulty ; but, strange as it may appear, General 
Binot was permitted to assemble all his countrymen in the barrack, 
as he said, to consult with them on the occasion. He had no sooner 
secured himself, than he positively refused to enter into any terms 
