Perhaps the Fort was best defended on the west, where the Company’s Tank[22] was situated.  Its bank was only about twelve feet from the Fort Ditch.  This use of tanks for defensive purposes was an excellent one, as they also provided the garrison with a good supply of drinking water.  A little later Clive protected his great barracks at Berhampur with a line of large tanks along the landward side.  However, this tank protected one side only, and the task of holding such a fort with an inadequate garrison was not a hopeful one even for a Frenchman.  It was only his weakness which had made Renault submit to pay the contribution demanded by the Nawab on his triumphant return from Calcutta in July of the previous year, and he and his comrades felt very bitterly the neglect of the Company in not sending money and reinforcements.  One of his younger subordinates wrote to a friend in Pondicherry:[23]—­

“But the 3-1/2 lahks that the Company has to pay to the Nawab, is that a trifle?  Yes, my dear fellow, for I should like it to have to pay still more, to teach it how to leave this Factory, which is, beyond contradiction, the finest of its settlements, denuded of soldiers and munitions of war, so that it is not possible for us to show our teeth.”

The wish was prophetic.

Like the English the French were forbidden by the Nawab to fortify themselves.  Renault dared not pay attention to this order.  He had seen what had happened to the English by the neglect of proper precautions, and when things were at their worst, the Nawab had to seek his alliance against the English, grant him leave to fortify Chandernagore, and, later on, even to provide him with money under the pretence that he was simply restoring the sum forcibly extorted from him the previous year.[24] Trade was at a standstill, and Renault was determined that if the enemies of his nation were destined to take the Company’s property, they should have the utmost difficulty possible in doing so.  He expended the money on provisions and ammunition.  At the same time, that he might not lose any chance of settling affairs peaceably with the English, he refused to associate himself with the Nawab, and entered upon negotiations for a neutrality in the Ganges.  To protect himself if these failed, he began raising fortifications and pulling down the houses which commanded the Fort or masked its fire.

He could not pull down the houses on the south of the Fort, from which Clive subsequently made his attack, partly for want of time, partly because the native workmen ran away, and partly because of the bad feeling prevalent in the motley force which formed his garrison.[25] The most fatal defect of all was the want of a military engineer.  The person who held that position had been sent from France.  He was a master mason, and had no knowledge of engineering.  It had been the same story in Calcutta.  Drake’s two engineers had been a subaltern in the military and a young covenanted servant.  Renault had to supervise the fortifications himself.