and the expense of the war; while gratuities to the French officers were provided for on equally liberal

terms.

Mozuffer Jung had other claims to satisfy besides those of Dupleix and his companions. The traitor Patan chiefs demanded that the territories which they had usurped should be confirmed to them, with exemption from all tribute, and that half of Nasir Jung's treasure should be given to them. Mozuffer, as well he might be, was afraid of these turbulent feudatories, and would not trust himself among them without a French escort. Bussy therefore was despatched by Dupleix, in command of between two and three thousand Europeans and Sepoys, to the assistance of the Soubahdar of the Deccan, who marched for Hydrabad at the beginning of the year 1751. On entering the territory of the Nabob of Kurnool, an ambuscade was discovered, and Bussy gave orders for clearing the pass, which was quickly done by the French artillery. But in pursuing the fugitives Mozuffer received a Patan arrow in his brain, which proved as instantaneously fatal to him as the Patan bullet had in the heart of his predecessor, Nasir Jung. Instant action was necessary, as the native army would otherwise have disbanded. themselves and returned to their homes; whereupon Bussy sent for Salabut Jung, the third son of Nizamool-Moolk, and caused him at once, with the consent of the army, to be proclaimed Soubahdar of the Deccan. By this measure tranquillity was at once restored, and General Bussy was deserving of the highest praise for the promptitude with which he acted, and for the success with which his conduct

Dupleix at the Height of his Fame. 43

was rewarded. He might have exacted much more than he did from the Soubahdar, with many additional concessions to his own nation; but he was satisfied in obtaining a confirmation of the grants made by his predecessor, Mozuffer Jung, and with this even the rapacious governor of Pondicherry was compelled to be satisfied.

Dupleix was now the greatest potentate in Hindostan. His countrymen boasted that his name was mentioned with awe and reverence in the palace of the Great Mogul at Delhi. The natives looked with amazement on the progress which, in the short space of four years, had enabled an European adventurer to make such rapid strides towards dominion in Asia. Nor was the vainglorious Frenchman content with the reality of power, as many of our wiser fellow-countrymen have been in the execution of their work, by which we have won the British Empire in India. Dupleix, with the characteristic love of a Frenchman's vanity, sought to display his assumed greatness before the eyes of his subjects and rivals. Near the spot where his policy had obtained its chief triumph by the fall of Nasir Jung and the substitution of his successor, he determined to erect a lofty column, on the four sides of which four pompous inscriptions, in four languages, should proclaim his glory throughout Hindostan. Medals stamped with emblems of his success were buried beneath the foundations of this stately pillar, while round it arose a town, bearing the haughty name of DUPLEIX FATI-HABAD, which is, being interpreted, "The City of the Victory of Dupleix."

This pillar, so characteristic a memorial of French

vanity, only remained long enough to show the evanescent nature of its power in India, which might have been compared to Jonah's gourd for growth, rather than to the slow but surer progress of the stately British oak; but if the philosophic historian seeks to inquire what has become of Dupleix's power, and where are the proofs of its continuance within half a century after he was gathered to his fathers, where are they? echo is constrained to

reply, Where?

CHAPTER VIII.

THE RISE OF CLIVE-FROM THE CAPTURE OF ARCOT TO THAT OF CHINGLEPUT.

A.D. 1751-1752.

PROMINENT among the many great statesmen

and warriors who have helped to win the British Empire in India, there stand out three great names, to whom under God the reward of success is more peculiarly due; who may be respectively characterized as Clive, "the founder," Warren Hastings, "the builder," and the late, as alas! we are now obliged to write the name, Lord Lawrence, "the preserver," when, under the throes of the mightiest mutiny which ever shook an empire to its base, he retained the Punjaub in its allegiance by his judicious action, and was thus enabled to send. the much-needed help to the British army in its life and death struggle with the traitors who had seized Delhi, the former capital of the ancient Mogul Empire, when it ruled as late as the beginning of the last century throughout the whole of Hindostan.

With the death of Aurungzebe in 1707, as we have already seen, the Mogul Empire fell fast into decay. A line of feudal princes soon raised themselves to independence in Rajpootana. The lieutenants of

the Emperor founded separate sovereignties at Lucknow and Hyderabad. The plain of the Upper Indus was occupied by a race of religious fanatics called the SIKHS. Persian and Afghan invaders crossed the Indus, and succeeded in sacking Delhi, the capital of the Moguls. Plundering hordes known under the name of the MAHRATTAS, the natives of India, whom the Mohammedan conquerors had long held in subjection, poured down from the highlands along the western coast, ravaged the country as far as Calcutta and Tanjore, and finally set up independent states at Poonah in the west, and Gwalior in the north of India.

We have seen how skilfully Dupleix availed himself of the disorder around him; how he had succeeded in appointing the virtual sovereigns of the Deccan and the Carnatic, under the respective titles of Soubahdar and the Nabob; while for himself, as representing the French Government, he had obtained a kingdom superior in population to the greatest European monarchies of that age, embracing a population of thirty millions of subjects. The time was now come to decide whether they should belong to France or England, as successors to the Mogul inheritance, the magnificent empire of Hindostan.

The

A curious embroglio ensued at the time when the French had proclaimed Salabut Jung soubahdar of the Deccan on the death of Mozuffer Jung. English and French in the Carnatic, though their respective nations were at peace in Europe, had taken different sides in the politics of India, and the eventual superiority was about to be fought out under cover of them. The English would probably