Some days after the arrival of the army at Tanjore, a treaty was concluded, by which the King agreed to pay five lacs of rupees, and to furnish some aid in Lally's intended attack of Trichinopoly. Fifty thousand rupees of this amount were paid, and hostages interchanged for the fulfilment of the engagement; but recurring points of irritation soon broke this agreement. Lally charged the King with insincerity, and with having no design but to gain time; while the other accused the French General of many outrages, and particularly of having confined, on groundless suspicion, forty of the contingent of horse with which he had furnished him. Lally, seeing no prospect of an amicable termination to these disputes and recriminations, determined, with the advice of his officers, to attack the town; and he not only sent to the King to denounce vengeance upon his city and dominions, but expressly directed Colonel Kennedy[40], through whom this threat was conveyed, to state, that it was the French General's intention to carry the Prince and all his family as slaves to the Mauritius. The counsels of the King of Tanjore had hitherto been fluctuating; they were decided, however, by Lally's conduct, and every preparation was made for defence. Captain Caillaud, who commanded in Trichinopoly, had before sent five hundred sepoys; and, being now convinced of the King's intention to oppose the French, sent a reinforcement of an equal number, with a small party of gunners. The day of their arrival, Lally had determined to retreat[41]; to which he was induced from want of ammunition, distress for provisions, and alarm at the British fleet, which was reported to be off Karical, a sea-port in the vicinity. The Tanjore General Monack-jee, on receiving certain information of the intended movement of the French, determined upon attacking them. He made some impression from coming upon the camp by surprise[42], but was compelled to retire: when, however, the army marched towards the Carnatic, his harassing operations aggravated what they suffered from fatigue and want of food; and we learn from authentic sources[43], that the whole of the French force was obliged to live for several days upon gram[44] and cocoa-nuts. The natural violence and acrimony of Lally's disposition were greatly increased by the bad success of this expedition. Instead of attributing its failure to the real causes, his own want of local knowledge, his obstinacy and presumption, he imputed it, and the privations the troops had suffered, to the corrupt practices of the Company's servants, to the general laxity of discipline and subordination in all departments of their government, and to the dread which M. D'Aché and his squadron appeared to have of the British fleet. These violent attacks produced abuse and recrimination, and nothing could exceed the discord and faction which at this period pervaded the settlement of Pondicherry.