hasn't?) "a secret leaning towards a military life. I
intended to kill a dozen Moors myself in the first sortie we
made, for I was determined not to stand like a stock on a
bastion, where one only runs the risk of getting wounds
without having any of the pleasure of inflicting them."

If not the highest form of military spirit, this was at any rate one
of which a good commander might make much use. Renault took
advantage of this feeling, and from the young men of the colony,
such as Company's servants, ships' officers, supercargoes, and
European inhabitants,[29] he made a company of volunteers, to whom,
at their own request, he gave his son, an officer of the garrison,
as commander.

One of the volunteer officers writes:--

"I had the honour to be appointed lieutenant, and was
much pleased when I saw the spirit of emulation which
reigned in every heart. I cannot sufficiently praise the
spirit of exactitude with which every one was animated, and
the progress which all made in so short a time in the
management of their arms. I lay stress on the fact that it
was an occupation entirely novel to them, and one of which
the commencement always appears very hard, but they overcame
all difficulties, and found amusement in what to others
would appear merely laborious."

All this time Renault was watching the war between the English and
the Moors. In January the English sailed up the Hugli, passed
Chandernagore contemptuously without a salute, burned the Moorish