a fight with an English fleet; it comprised only four ships of war, two transports, and a few smaller vessels, carrying about 1,800 troops.[209] The ships were under the command of Admiral Linois, who was destined to be the terror of our merchantmen in eastern seas.  Decaen’s first halt was at the Cape, which had been given back by us to the Dutch East India Company on February 21st, 1803.  The French general found the Dutch officials in their usual state of lethargy:  the fortifications had not been repaired, and many of the inhabitants, and even of the officials themselves, says Decaen, were devoted to the English.  After surveying the place, doubtless with a view to its occupation as the point d’appui hinted at in his instructions, he set sail on the 27th of May, and arrived before Pondicherry on the 11th of July.[210]

In the meantime important events had transpired which served to wreck not only Decaen’s enterprise, but the French influence in India.  In Europe the flames of war had burst forth, a fact of which both Decaen and the British officials were ignorant; but the Governor of Fort St. George (Madras), having, before the 15th of June, “received intelligence which appeared to indicate the certainty of an early renewal of hostilities between His Majesty and France,” announced that he must postpone the restitution of Pondicherry to the French, until he should have the authority of the Governor-General for such action.[211]

The Marquis Wellesley was still less disposed to any such restitution.  French intervention in the affairs of Switzerland, which will be described later on, had so embittered Anglo-French relations that on October the 17th, 1802, Lord Hobart, our Minister of War and for the Colonies, despatched a “most secret” despatch, stating that recent events rendered it necessary to postpone this retrocession.  At a later period Wellesley received contrary orders, instructing him to restore French and Dutch territories; but he judged that step to be inopportune considering the gravity of events in the north of India.  So active was the French propaganda at the Mahratta Courts, and so threatening were their armed preparations, that he redoubled his efforts for the consolidation of British supremacy.  He resolved to strike at Scindiah, unless he withdrew his southern army into his own territories; and, on receiving an evasive answer from that prince, who hoped by temporizing to gain armed succours from France, he launched the British forces against him.  Now was the opportunity for Arthur Wellesley to display his prowess against the finest forces of the East; and brilliantly did the young warrior display it.  The victories of Assaye in September, and of Argaum in November, scattered the southern Mahratta force, but only after desperate conflicts that suggested how easily a couple of Decaen’s battalions might have turned the scales of war.