History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 19Carlyle, Thomas
History
History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 19
Carlyle, Thomas
Frederick II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786; Prussia (Germany) -- History -- Frederick II, 1740-1786; Social problems
From the Madras region, too, from India and outrageous Lally, the news
are good. Early in Spring last, poor Lally,--a man of endless talent and
courage, but of dreadfully emphatic loose tongue, in fact of a blazing
ungoverned Irish turn of mind,--had instantly, on sight of some small
Succors from Pitt, to raise his siege of Madras, retire to Pondicherry;
and, in fact, go plunging and tumbling downhill, he and his India with
him, at an ever-faster rate, till they also had got to the Abyss. "My
policy is in these five words, NO ENGLISHMAN IN THIS PENINSULA," wrote
he, a year ago, on landing in India; and now it is to be No FRENCHMAN,
and there is one word in the five to be altered!--Of poor Lally, zealous
and furious over-much, and nearly the most unfortunate and worst-used
"man of genius" I ever read of, whose lion-like struggles against French
Official people, and against Pitt's Captains and their sea-fights and
siegings, would deserve a volume to themselves, we have said, and can
here say, as good as nothing,--except that they all ended, for Lally and
French India, in total surrender, 16th January, 1761; and that Lally,
some years afterwards, for toils undergone and for services done, got,
when accounts came to be liquidated, death on the scaffold. Dates I give
below. [28th April, 1758, Lands at Pondicherry; instantly proceeds
upon Fort St. David. 2d June, 1758, Takes it: meant to have gone now
on Madras; but finds he has no money;--goes extorting money from
Black Potentates about, Rajah of Travancore, &c., in a violent and
extraordinary style; and can get little. Nevertheless, 14th December,
1758, Lays Siege to Madras.]
16th February, 1759, Is obliged to quit trenches at Madras, and retire
dismally upon Pondicherry,--to mere indigence, mutiny ("ten mutinies"),
Official conspiracy, and chaos come again.
22d January, 1760, Makes outrush on Wandewash, and the English posted
there; is beaten, driven back into Pondicherry. April, 1760, Is besieged
in Pondicherry. 16th January, 1761, Is taken, Pondicherry, French India
and he;--to Madras he, lest the French Official party kill him, as they
attempt to do.
23d September, 1761, arrives, prisoner, in England: thence, on parole,
to France and Paris, 21st October. November, 1762, To Bastille; waits
trial nineteen months; trial lasts two years. 6th May, 1766, To be
BEHEADED,--9th May was. [See BEATSON, ii. 369-372, 96-110, &c.; Voltaire
(FRAGMENTS SUR L'INDE) in _OEuvres,_ xxix. 183-253; BIOGRAPHIC
UNIVERSELLE, Lally.]
"Gained Fontenoy for us," said many persons;--undoubtedly gained various
things for us, fought for us Berserkir-like on all occasions; hoped,
in the end, to be Marechal de France, and undertook a Championship of
India, which issues in this way! America and India, it is written,
are both to be Pitt's. Let both, if possible, remain silent to us
henceforth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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