[28] Mr. Mill in his History of India (vol. iii. p. 105.), in reference to these early occurrences of Clive's life, describes him, at this period, as of a turbulent disposition; but the justice of the application of such an epithet is not borne out by the facts. [29] Colonel Lawrence's Narrative. [30] Orme, War in Hindustan. [31] This inattention to orders is referred by some native agents of the company to the parsimony of the English governor, in not making presents to the nabob, which was contrasted with the liberality of Dupleix, who well knew how to gain his objects at such courts. [32] Colonel Wilks. [33] Ghazee-u-Deen. [34] Two lacs of rupees were given to the French, and eighty-one villages were ceded belonging to Karical, which place the French had seized in 1736, and built a fort there. [35] The Patan Nabobs of Kurpa, Karnoul, and Savanore were the chief persons in the conspiracy. They were discontented at the treatment they received from Nasir Jung. They were joined by Shandraz Khan, and other high officers of that prince. These latter are stated to have considered themselves disgraced by the imprisonment of Muzuffer Jung, whose submission they had obtained by the most sacred pledges of his being kindly treated. [36] Wilks, vol. i. p. 269. CHAP. II. (A. D. 1750.) The government of Fort St. David had been assumed by Mr. Saunders, a man of sound sense and unconquerable firmness. Nothing could be more alarming than the situation in which he found the affairs of the Company. He saw immediately, that, unless Mahommed Ali was effectually supported, the Carnatic would fall into the possession of Chunda Sahib, from whom the Company could expect no favour; and the probability of this happening was greater, from the recent success of that chief, in obtaining possession of Madura, which literally confined Mahommed Ali to the single possession of Trichinopoly; almost every other place having acknowledged the authority of his rival. The government of Fort St. David had sent to the aid of Mahommed Ali a body of 600 men under Captain Cope; but the failure of an attempt made by this party to recover Madura depressed still more the spirits of the adherents of their ally, who was soon besieged by the united forces of Chunda Sahib and the French. This desperate state of his fortunes led to the renewal of his efforts to obtain more efficient aid from the English, to whom he not only offered a considerable territory contiguous to Madras, but agreed to pay the expenses of all the troops employed in his support. These offers, and the certain ruin in which the success of Chunda Sahib must involve the Company, would hardly have roused the Committee of Fort St. David, unauthorised as they were by their instructions from England, to depart from their neutrality, had not Dupleix insulted their forbearance by planting white flags, (to denote that they were French property) in almost every field[37] around