“were ready to start, the soldiers had been paid, the Commandant[90] waited only for final orders.  I went to see him and promised him a large sum if he succeeded in raising the siege of Chandernagore.  I also visited several of the chief officers, to whom I promised rewards proportionate to their rank.  I represented to the Nawab that Chandernagore must be certainly captured if the reinforcements did not set out at once, and I tried to persuade him to give his orders to the Commandant in my presence.  ‘All is ready,’ replied the Nawab, ’but before resorting to arms it is proper to try all possible means to avoid a rupture, and all the more so as the English have just promised to obey the orders I shall send them.’[91] I recognized the hand of the Seths in these details.

They encouraged the Nawab in a false impression about this affair.  On the one hand, they assured him that the march of the English, was only to frighten us into subscribing to a treaty of neutrality, and on the other hand they increased his natural timidity by exaggerating the force of the English and by representing the risk he ran in assisting us with reinforcements which would probably not prevent the capture of Chandernagore if the English were determined to take it, but would serve as a reason for the English to attack the Nawab himself.  They managed so well that they destroyed in the evening all the effect I had produced in the morning.

“I resolved to visit the bankers.  They immediately commenced talking about our debts, and called my attention to the want of punctuality in our payments.  I said that this was not the question just now, and that I came to them upon a much more interesting matter, which, however, concerned them as well as us with respect to those very debts for which they were asking payment and security.  I asked why they supported the English against us.  They denied it, and, after much explanation, they promised to make any suggestions I wished to the Nawab.  They added that they were quite sure the English would not attack us, and that I might remain tranquil.  Knowing that they were well acquainted with the designs of the English, I told them I knew as well as they did what these were, and that I saw no way of preventing them from attacking Chandernagore except by hastening the despatch of the reinforcements which the Nawab had promised, and that as they were disposed to serve me, I begged them to make the Nawab understand the same.  They replied that the Nawab wished to avoid any rupture with the English, and they said many other things which only showed me that, in spite of their good will, they would do nothing for us.  Ranjit Rai, who was their man of business as well as the agent of the English, said to me in a mocking tone, ’You are a Frenchman; are you afraid of the English?  If they attack you, defend yourselves!  No one is ignorant of what your nation has done on the Madras Coast, and we are curious to see how