offer was wise counsel and brave leaders. They were loth to offer
these to a man like the Nawab against Europeans, and he and his
Court were as loth to accept them. Unluckily for the French,
deserters from Chandernagore had served the Nawab's artillery when
he took Calcutta, and it was even asserted that the French had
supplied the Nawab with gunpowder; and so when the English heard of
these new negotiations, they considered the proposals for a
neutrality to be a mere blind; they forgot the kindness shown by the
French to English refugees at Dacca, Cossimbazar, and Chandernagore,
and determined that, as a permanent peace with the Nawab was out of
the question, they would, whilst he hesitated as to his course of
action, anticipate him by destroying the one element of force which,
if added to his power, might have made him irresistible. They
continued the negotiations for a neutrality on the Ganges only until
they were reinforced by a body of 500 Europeans from Bombay, when
they sent back the French envoys and exacted permission from the
Nawab to attack Chandernagore. Clive marched on that town with a
land force of 4000 Europeans and Sepoys, and Admiral Watson
proceeded up the river with a small but powerful squadron.

Thus began the ruin of the French in Bengal. The chief French
Factories were, as I have said, at Chandernagore, Cossimbazar, and
Dacca. The Chiefs of these Factories were M. Renault, the Director
of all the French in Bengal; M. Law, a nephew of the celebrated Law
of Lauriston, the financier; and M. Courtin. It is the doings and
sufferings of these three gallant men which are recorded in the
following chapters. They had no hope of being able to resist the
English by themselves, but they hoped, and actually believed, that
France would send them assistance if they could only hold out till
it arrived. Renault, whose case was the most desperate, perhaps