but Eyre Coote, who commanded the detachment which followed him, had the utmost difficulty in persuading his men to advance, and wrote to Clive that he had never known soldiers exposed to greater hardships.  At Patna Eyre Coote seized the French Factory, where the Chief, M. de la Bretesche, was lying ill.  The military and other Company’s servants had gone on with Law, leaving in charge a person variously called M. Innocent and Innocent Jesus.  He was not a Frenchman, but nevertheless he was sent down to Calcutta.  From Patna Eyre Coote got as far as Chupra, only to find Law safe beyond the frontier at Ghazipur, and nothing left for him to do but to return.

From now on to January, 1761, Law was out of the reach of the English, living precariously on supplies sent from Bussy in the south, from his wife at Chinsurah, and from a secret store which M. de la Bretesche had established at Patna unknown to the English, and upon loans raised from wealthy natives, such as the Raja of Bettiah.  He believed all along that the French would soon make an effort to invade Bengal, where there was a large native party in their favour, and where he could assist them by creating a diversion in the north.  I shall touch on his adventures very briefly.

His first halt was at Benares, which he reached on the 2nd of August, and where the Raja Bulwant Singh tried to wheedle and frighten him into surrendering his guns.  He escaped out of his hands by sheer bluff, and went on to Chunargarh, where he received letters from Suja-ud-daula, Nawab of Oudh, a friend of Siraj-ud-daula’s, whom he hoped to persuade into invading Bengal.  On the 3rd of September he reached Allahabad, and here left his troop under the command of M. le Comte de Carryon, whilst he went on to Lucknow, the capital of Oudh.

It is only at this moment that Law bethinks him of describing his troop.  It consisted of 175 Europeans and 100 sepoys drilled in European fashion.  The officers were D’Hurvilliers, le Comte de Carryon (who had brought a detachment from Dacca before Law left Cossimbazar), Ensign Brayer (who had commanded the military at Patna), Ensign Jobard (who had escaped from Chandernagore), and Ensign Martin de la Case.  He also entertained as officers MM.  Debelleme (Captain of a French East Indiaman), Boissemont, and La Ville Martere, Company’s servants (these three had all escaped from Chandernagore), Dangereux and Dubois (Company’s servants stationed at Cossimbazar), Beinges (a Company’s servant stationed at Patna), and two private gentlemen, Kerdizien and Gourbin.  Besides these, MM.  Anquetil du Perron,[105] La Rue, Desjoux, Villequain, Desbrosses, and Calve, served as volunteers.  His chaplain was the Reverend Father Onofre, and he had two surgeons, Dubois and Le Page.  The last two were probably the surgeons of Cossimbazar and Patna.  He had also with him M. Lenoir, second of Patna, whose acquaintance with the language and the people was invaluable.  Law seems to have been always able to recruit his sepoys, but he had no great opinion of them.