8, peace had been signed between the
two nations at Aix-la-Chapelle. By the terms of this treaty the
conquests made by the two countries were to be restored. The French,
{41}therefore, instead of renewing their attack on Fort St. David,
were compelled to restore Madras, its fortifications undermined, and
its storehouses empty.[5] This restoration was the more distasteful
to them, when they found, as they very soon found, that from the
force of events, the hostilities which had ceased in Europe were, by
virtue of a legal fiction, to be continued in India. They were still
to fight the battle for supremacy, not as principals, but as allies
of the native princes who, in the disorder accompanying the
catastrophe of the Mughal empire, fought for their own hand, against
the native allies of the English.

[Footnote 5: Forrest, page 4. The report which he gives _in extenso_,
minuted by the Council of the Madras Presidency, runs as follows:
'The condition we have received it (Madras) in is indeed very
indifferent, the French having undermined the fortifications, and
rifled it of all useful and valuable stores.'

The official statement is quite opposed to the private accounts
hitherto accepted as true.]

{42}

CHAPTER V
CLIVE DECIDES FOR THE CAREER OF A SOLDIER

Before the conditions of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle had become
known in India, the English governor of Fort St. David had despatched
thence a small force of 430 Englishmen and 1000 sipahis to assist the
ex-Raja of Tanjore, who had been dethroned for gross misconduct, to
recover his kingdom. That, at least, was the nominal reason. The
ambition to obtain for the English possession of Devikota, a fort on
the river Coleroon, at the point where that river runs into the sea,
was the true cause of the action. The force was commanded by Captain
Cope, an officer of inferior merit. Clive accompanied it as a
volunteer. The expedition failed from causes which it was impossible
to combat. The ex-Raja had no partisans, and the season was that of
the monsoon-storms.

Still the idea was too popular to be abandoned. After the treaty
between the two nations had reached India the expedition was
therefore resumed. This time Major Lawrence, released by the action
of that treaty, assumed the command. He took with him the entire
available European force of the Company, leaving only a few to man
the defences, and giving Clive a commission for the time only, to
accompany {43}him