It is now time to return to the subject of India, which, as will be remembered, was dropped at the conclusion of the truce¹ between France and England in January 1755. Two days after the signing of the articles, Governor Saunders left Madras for Europe, and was followed a month later by M. Godeheu. It is not likely that the departure of the two signatories of the treaty wrought² any great influence on the subsequent proceedings³ of the East India Company; but certain it is that before the instrument was a month old the infraction⁵ of its provisions was already begun. It was in fact impossible to observe the truce. Its object seems to have been to terminate hostilities⁶ in the Carnatic alone; but it was not to be expected that, while Bussy was exerting his vast ability and energy at Aurungabad for the promotion⁷ of French interests, the British could sit with folded hands in submission⁸ to the article which bound French and English alike "not to interfere⁹ in any difference which might arise between the princes of the country." The British had their puppet as well as the French, and having used him for their own purposes could not suddenly desert him, the less so inasmuch as the Nabob Mohammed Ali had neither resources of his own nor the wits whereby to provide himself with them. When therefore Mohammed Ali begged for a British force to reduce Madura and Tinnevelly, which he conceived to be his tributaries¹⁰, and to collect his tribute for him, the authorities at Madras assented¹¹ without

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