HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
457 
would have been sufficient to have taken both these places, but the Chevalier des 
Soupirs, who was entirely ignorant of the manner of carrying on war in that country, 
suffered himself to be influenced by M. de Leyrit, the Company’s governor of 
Pondicherry, who kept him all this time in a state of inactivity, and at the expense 
of all the money which he had brought from Europe. 
Six months previous to his arrival in India the English had driven the Company 
from all its settlements in Bengal, which were the most valuable of their possessions. 
On the 25th of April, 1758, the Count D’Ache landed the Count de Lally at' 
Pondicherry, with some of his principal officers, and several chests of money. On 
the following day, as he was preparing to cast anchor in the road of that place, he 
was surprised by the English squadron, and lost a vessel of 74 guns; but, availing' 
himself of a favourable wind, he contrived to escape. 
Within a few hours after he had disembarked, Count de Lally invested Cudalore, 
a place situated about five leagues from Pondicherry, and made himself master of 
it in three days: the garrison consisted of ten invalids. In a short time after he 
besieged Fort St. David, and entered into that place on the 2d of June, after seven¬ 
teen days of open trenches. On the 10th of the same month the Count returned 
to Pondicherry 5 and, having determined to make an attack on Madras, he dis¬ 
patched a vessel to Count D’Ache, who had retreated sixty leagues to the windward, 
with orders to return- M. de Leyrit at this time signified to Count de Lally, that 
he was not in a condition to subsist his troops for more than fifteen days, and that 
there was no other resource but to march them into the kingdom of Tanjore, which 
was about fifty leagues to the south of Pondicherry, to claim a debt due from the 
Rajah of that country. Thus he was obliged to seek for subsistence in Tanjore till 
the stormy season approached, which would oblige the two squadrons to take 
refuge in some distant ports. 
The Rajah of Tanjore having refused the debt demanded of him, Count Lally 
marched towards his capital; and, in order to intimidate him, levelled five pieces 
of cannon against that place. 
At this time he received an account that the English were marching, with a body 
of eight hundred men, against Pondicherry, and that the Chevalier des Soupirs, who 
had not an equal force, was preparing to abandon the surrounding country: he 
accordingly evacuated Tanjore, after having levied four hundred and forty thousand 
livres in money, and lived, during two months, at the expense of the inhabitants. 
3 N 
