The English did not regain possession of the Factory at Dacca till the 8th of March, by which time the declaration of War between France and England was known, and the likelihood of troubles in Bengal was very apparent.  As we have seen, the English were successful in their attack on Chandernagore, but the whole country was aware that the Nawab was only the more enraged with them, and his local officers might at any moment be instructed to take vengeance on Englishmen found defenceless up country.  On the 23rd of March, Messrs. Sumner and Waller wrote from Dacca that Jusserat Khan had refused to restore the Factory cannon, and to pass their goods without a new parwana[125] from Murshidabad.  It was therefore still very doubtful whether he would assist the English or the French at Dacca, and though the English obtained the parwana they wanted early in May, on the 9th the Council at Calcutta sent them orders to do the best they could for their own security, and informed them they had sent an armed sloop to Luckipore to cover their retreat.  They immediately sent down all the goods they could, but as matters became quieter again they soon resumed business, and appear to have had no further trouble.

It may be imagined that M. Courtin and his friends, knowing that the English had demanded the surrender of the French Factories, had a very uncomfortable experience all this time.[126] Unfortunately no Records of the French Factories in Bengal are now to be found, and I had despaired of obtaining any information about the expulsion from Dacca, when, in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris, I came on a MS. entitled, “Copy of a letter from M. Courtin from India, written to his wife, in which are given in detail the different affairs which he had with the Moors from the 22nd of June, 1757, the day of his evacuation of Dacca, to the 9th of March, 1758."[127]

M. Courtin had married a Madame Direy, widow of a French Company’s servant, and the letter shows she was fortunately in France at the time of her husband’s troubles.  As was natural, but inconveniently enough for us, Courtin does not think it necessary to trouble her with unintelligible and unpronounceable Indian names.  Where possible, I shall fill them in from the English Records, otherwise I shall interrupt the course of the letter as little as possible.  It runs as follows:—­

  “Calcapur,[128] April 20, 1758.

“Word must have reached thee in France of the loss of Chandernagore, which was taken from us by the English on the 23rd of March, 1757, after eleven days’ siege.  I was then at Dacca, and expecting every day to see M. Chevalier return from his journey to the King of Assam.  Judge, my dear wife, of the chagrin and embarrassment into which I was thrown by this deplorable event.  The English had had no idea of attacking Chandernagore until they had recovered Calcutta from the Moors, taken the Moorish village at Hugli, and forced the