"You may be assured," Clive writes[38], "I felt much for you, when I heard of the unequal fight between the two squadrons, for want of your not being better supported by two or three of His Majesty's ships. The unthinking world, who never bestow applause but where there is success, would have been ready enough to have laid the censure at your door, if you had not called the authors of the late miscarriage to a public account. It is really a cruel case, after the eminent examples of bravery and conduct shown by you personally, that a certain victory should be snatched out of your hands by the misbehaviour of others. May infamy and disgrace attend all those who are backward in their country's cause; and may the worst of punishment attend those who so shamefully gave up Saint David's to the French! I cannot think of that transaction with common patience; every reflection about it pains me to the very soul; and the more I inquire into facts, the more reason I have to lament the lost reputation of the English on the coast of Coromandel. I do not mean that St. David's would not have been taken at last; but it certainly might have been made to cost M. Lally so dear, as to have rendered his future attempts much more uncertain and precarious." Lally found among the prisoners at Fort St. David a pretender[39] to the throne of Tanjore; and, by threatening to support this man's claims, he expected to obtain, through the fears of the Prince of that country, a supply of treasure, of which he was in great want. To enforce compliance with the large demand he made as the price of his forbearance, he moved towards Tanjore. His march was the cause of equal distress to his own troops, and to the natives of the country through which he passed. The latter, alarmed by his indiscriminate violence and the licence he admitted, particularly in seizing their cattle, fled the country; and we may judge how general the desertion of their homes must have been, when we are informed that the French army was almost starving in the midst of plenty; for, while it found great stores of paddy, which is the name given to rice before the grain is separated from the husk, there were literally no persons to beat it out, as it requires before it can be used as food. The troops had neither tents nor baggage; for, in the common alarm at the violent measures of the French General, not even bullock drivers could be persuaded to remain in the camp.