On the coast of Ceylon he met Bussy, a once famous fighter in India, who had been sent from Europe to take the general command in the East, with troops. The reinforcements provided for Suffren were generally sent in small bodies, and were frequently intercepted. But his fleet had now been raised to fifteen sail, and was the mainstay of the enemies of the Company. Hyder Ali was dead, but his son Tippoo Sultan continued the war, though it was going against him. The struggle concentrated around Cuddalore, where Bussy was assailed by a superior army. Hughes, whose fleet had now been brought up to eighteen sail, co-operated with the besieging army. His superiority in number of ships was discounted by the ill-health of his crews, which were very sickly. The last encounter between the old opponents took place on the 20th June, and was of the commonplace eighteenth-century order—save for two details. The French fleet of fifteen sail attacked the British fleet of eighteen from windward—and it was the British fleet which retired. Then Suffren had received an order from home—an order inspired by the capture of the Comte de Grasse in the battle of Dominica—to hoist his flag in a frigate and direct his line from outside. He obeyed, and it perhaps throws some light on the question whether the proper place for an admiral is in his line, where he can set an example, or outside of it, where he can see and direct the whole, that on this occasion the French fleet came into action in far better order than in previous engagements. The retreat of Hughes left the army besieging Cuddalore in a dangerous position. It depended on transport by sea for most of its provisions, and might have been driven to a disastrous retreat. But at this moment the news that the preliminaries of peace had been signed in Europe on the 20th January reached India, and was communicated to Suffren on the 29th June. He returned to Europe to die of apoplexy in 1788, and when next the French and English fleets met, the outbreak of the great Revolution had made another world. CHAPTER X THE FIRST STAGE OF THE WAR