of women during the siege, retired to the Dutch and Danish
settlements at Chinsurah and Serampore a few days before, and the
native population disappeared as soon as the British army
approached. The Returns therefore show only 538 Europeans and 66
Topasses. The Governor or Director, as already mentioned, was Pierre
Renault: his Council consisted of MM. Fournier, Caillot, Laporterie,
Nicolas, and Picques. There were 36 Frenchmen of lesser rank in the
Company's service, as well as 6 surgeons. The troops were commanded
by M. de Tury and 10 officers. There were also 10 officers of the
French East India Company's vessels, and 107 persons of sufficient
importance for their _parole_ to be demanded when the Fort fell.
Apparently these Returns do not include those who were killed in the
defence, nor have we any definite information as to the number of
French sepoys, but Eyre Coote[16] says there were 500.

The story of the siege is to be gathered from many accounts. M.
Renault and his Council submitted an official report; Renault wrote
many letters to Dupleix and other patrons or friends; several of the
Council and other private persons did the same.[17] M. Jean Law,
whose personal experiences we shall deal with in the next chapter,
was Chief of Cossimbazar, and watched the siege, as it were, from
the outside. His straightforward narrative helps us now and then to
correct a mis-statement made by the besieged in the bitterness of
defeat. On the English side, besides the Bengal records, there are
Clive's and Eyre Coote's military journals, the Logs of the British
ships of war, and the journal of Surgeon Edward Ives of His
Majesty's ship _Kent_. Thus this passage of arms, almost the only
one in Bengal[18] in which the protagonists were Europeans, is no
obscure event, but one in which almost every incident was seen and
described from opposite points of view. This multiplicity of