ity on the Ganges only until
they were reinforced by a body of 500 Europeans from Bombay, when
they sent back the French envoys and exacted permission from the
Nawab to attack Chandernagore. Clive marched on that town with a
land force of 4000 Europeans and Sepoys, and Admiral Watson
proceeded up the river with a small but powerful squadron.

Thus began the ruin of the French in Bengal. The chief French
Factories were, as I have said, at Chandernagore, Cossimbazar, and
Dacca. The Chiefs of these Factories were M. Renault, the Director
of all the French in Bengal; M. Law, a nephew of the celebrated Law
of Lauriston, the financier; and M. Courtin. It is the doings and
sufferings of these three gallant men which are recorded in the
following chapters. They had no hope of being able to resist the
English by themselves, but they hoped, and actually believed, that
France would send them assistance if they could only hold out till
it arrived. Renault, whose case was the most desperate, perhaps
thought that the Nawab would, in his own interest, support him if
the English attacked Chandernagore; but knowing the Nawab as well as
he did, and reflecting that he had himself refused the Nawab
assistance when he asked for it, his hope must have been a feeble
one. Still he could not, with honour, give up a fortified position
without attempting a defence, and he determined to do his best. When
he failed, all that Law and Courtin could expect to do was to
maintain their personal liberty and create a diversion in the north
of Bengal when French forces attacked it in the south. It was not
their fault that the attack was never made.

I shall make no mention of the fate of the Factories at Balasore and
Jugdea. At these the number of Frenchmen was so very small that
resistance and escape were equally hopeless. Patna lay on the line
of Law's retreat, and, as we shall see, he was joined by the
second and other subordinate officers of that Factory. The chief, M.
de la Bretesche, was too ill to be moved, but he managed, by the
assistance of his native friends, to secure a large portion of the
property of the French East India Company, and so to finance Law
during his wanderings.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Aliverdi Khan entered Muxadavad or Murshidabad as a
conqueror on the 30th of March, 1742. He died on the 10th of April,
1756. (_Scrafton_.)]

[Footnote 2: Literally the fourth part of the Revenues. The Marathas
extorted the right to lev