which reached
Charlie, were not satisfactory--Dupleix, with his usual energy, was
aiding the son of Chunda Sahib, with men and money, in his combat with
the British protege; and most of the native allies of the latter had
fallen away from him. Trichinopoli was again besieged, and the
fortunes of England, lately so flourishing, were waning again. In the
Deccan, French influence was supreme. Bussy, with a strong and
well-disciplined French force, maintained Salabut Jung, whom the
French had placed on the throne, against all opponents. At one time it
was the Peishwar, at another the Mahrattas against whom Bussy turned
his arms; and always with success, and the French had acquired the
four districts on the coast, known as the Northern Sircas.

It was in vain that Charlie endeavoured to gain an accurate knowledge
of the political position, so quickly and continually did this change.
At one time the Peishwar and the Nizam, as the Subadar of the Deccan
was now called, would be fighting in alliance against one or other of
the Mahratta chiefs. At another time they would be in conflict with
each other, while the Rajah of Mysore, Murari Reo, and other chiefs
were sometimes fighting on one side, sometimes on another.

Proud of his rapidly increasing force, Boorhau Reo would, more than
once in the course of the year, have joined in the warfare going on
around. Charlie, however, succeeded in restraining him from doing so;
pointing out that the victor of one day was the vanquished of the
next, and that it was worse than useless to join in a struggle of
which the conditions were so uncertain, and the changes of fortune so
rapid, that none could count upon others for aid, however great the
assistance they might have rendered only a short time before.

"Were you to gain territory, Rajah, which you might, perhaps, largely
do, from the efficient aid which you might render to one party or the
other, you would be the object of a hostile combination against which
you could not hope to struggle."

The rajah yielded at once to Charlie's arguments; but the influence of
the latter added to the hostility, which the favour shown him by the
rajah had provoked, among many of the leading men of the state. Where
the sides were often so closely balanced as was the case in these
intestine struggles, the aid of every rajah, however small his
following, was sought by one or other of the combatants; and the
counsellors of those able to place a respecta