ents,
however, he had been slyly measuring the Company's strength; and six
months later he came back with a larger force, and blockaded Madras.
He plundered all that he could, and on one occasion his spoil included
"40 ox loads of the Company's cloth." For more than three months the
blockade continued, and the Company's trade was entirely stopped, and
provisions in Madras were exceedingly scarce. Da-ud Khan, eventually
wearying of the unsuccessful siege, named the price that would buy him
off; and the Council, fearing the wrath of the Directors at the loss
of their trade, were glad to come to terms. The Company's Minute on
the occasion is a brief but exultant record: 'The siege is raised!'

In 1746 there was a siege of a more serious sort. England and France
were at war in Europe, and suddenly a squadron of French ships
appeared off Fort St. George. After a week's siege, the English
merchants capitulated to superior force, and they were all sent to
Pondicherry as prisoners, and the French flag waved over Madras; but
by the treaty which ended the war, Madras was restored to the Company.
Twelve years later Madras was once more besieged by the French, but
unsuccessfully, and eventually the French leaders marched their forces
away, quarrelling among themselves over their ill-success.

On several occasions, bodies of horsemen in the service of the
adventurous Haidar Ali of Mysore, raided the country almost up to the
Fort ditch, and were sometimes to be seen shaking their spears in
defiance at the sentries on its walls.

These were not the only occasions on which Fort St. George was
assailed, but they suffice to show how necessary it was that the
Company's employees and their wares should be housed within the walls
of a fort.

Fort St. George in the beginning was very small. Its external length
parallel with the seashore was 108 yards, and its breadth was 100
yards. When White Town, which grew up around it, was fortified, there
was 'a fort within a fort' (_vide_ Map, p. 10); but eventually the
inner wall was demolished. At various times the outer wall has been
altered, but the Fort as we have it to-day is the selfsame Fort St.
George nevertheless, a glorious relic of bygone times, and verily a
history in stone.

The gates of Fort St. George open towards main thoroughfares of
Madras, and it is permitted to anybody to pass in and out; but it is
not visited nearly so much as its historic associations deserve. Let
us pass