n extent by those of the Nawab.
Many gallant deeds were performed on both sides. For a time Paradis
was the soul of the defence. When he was killed, which happened
whilst making a sortie on the 11th of September, the entire labour of
directing the necessary measures fell upon Dupleix. In the attack
were many good men and true. Boscawen himself gave an example of
daring which was universally followed. Amongst those who were
specially remarked was the hero of this book. A contemporary writer,
whose journal[3] of the siege is before me, remarks regarding that
young writer, that he 'served in the trenches on this occasion, and
by his gallant conduct gave the first prognostic of that high
military spirit, which was the spring of his future actions, and the
principal source of the decisive intrepidity {40}and elevation of
mind, which were his characteristic endowments.' The efforts of the
besiegers shattered, however, before the sturdy defence of the
French. On the 17th of October the English were forced to raise the
siege, leaving dead from the fire of the enemy or from sickness 1065
men. The English fleet remained for a year off the coast, and then
sailed for England: the garrison, formerly the garrison of Madras and
of Fort St. David, retired to the latter place, carrying with it
Robert Clive, soon to be joined there by one of the most
distinguished men whose careers have illustrated the history of the
English in India, Major Stringer Lawrence.[4]

[Footnote 3: See _Asiatic Annual Register_ for 1802.]

[Footnote 4: Major Lawrence had arrived from England on the 13th of
January 1747, commissioned to command all the Company's troops in
India. From Mr. Forrest's Madras Records we find that his salary as
Major was 300 pounds per annum, and 50 pagodas per month for other
allowances, besides 70 pounds per annum as third in Council. It was
he who had repulsed the fourth attack made by the French on Fort St.
David in the spring of that year. In the early days of the siege of
Pondicherry he had had the misfortune to be taken prisoner. Released
by the conditions of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, he then resumed
command at Fort St. David.]

It is probable that, after the raising of the siege of Pondicherry,
the French would have resumed their operations against Fort St.
David, for, early in 1749, reinforcements in men and money had
reached them. But before they could move, information reached them
that, on the 7th of October, 174