PONDICHERR Y 
till the 73d regiment had evacuated the town, which was complied 
with, when the capitulation, which is before the public, was signed, 
and they became prisoners of war. 
^ It would be difficult to account for the proceedings of the British 
officers on this occasion. The town was completely in their posses- 
sion when they humbly retired from it, and the French could not 
have resisted for ten minutes, when the farce of a capitulation was 
entered into ; for the barracks, in which they were shut up, were 
only one story high, and the court in the centre was commanded 
by several lofty houses adjoining, from the roofs of which every 
man that appeared below might have been picked off by the soldiers 
stationed on them ; and, if necessary, the cannon in the great square 
might have been directed against them, without any hazard of in- 
juring the town, as the beach was adjoining. The whole number 
of the French, civil and military, was not above two hundred and 
fifty, whilst the British had five hundred Europeans, besides sepoys. 
Colonel Saint John, who arrived during the negotiation, objected 
in the strongest manner, but without effect. 
General Binot's impudence did not desert him when he became 
a prisoner. He demanded table money and forage, as well as his 
usual pay; and when Colonel Saint John refused to comply, de- 
clared the articles of capitulation were broken, and objected to sign 
his parole. When at length he consented, and the paper was sent 
to him, he altered it in such a manner, as to permit him to seize 
the cartel in which he was to depart for the Isle of France. This 
was fortunately discovered, and he was obliged to sign a regular 
one. The civil servants who remained, are in general gentlemanly 
respectable men; they are chiefly Royalists, who had returned to 
