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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 2, p. 473.

xiv] HISTORY OF BRITISH RULE 473 Northern Circars,' which lies between Orissa and Madras, was granted to the French to meet the expense of the troops. Bussy did good service to the Nizm; for he not only maintained tranquillity in the Deccan, but won a great victory over the Marathas at Ahmadnagar in I75i. He also showed himself a wise administrator, and the Northern Circars pros- pered exceedingly under his rule. Dupleix, in spite of his services, was recalled to France in Third disgrace in I754, and his successor Godeheu signed a sus- French pension of arms with the Governor of Madras. Two years 1756-63. after Dupleix's departure the Seven Years' War broke out in Europe, and England and France were once more open enemies. There was no further need for fighting under the banners of rival native princes. The Comte de Lally-Tollendal, Lally, son of an Irish refugee, was sent out by the French Government 1758. to expel the English from India. He landed in i758 and captured Fort St. David. There, however, his success ended. A stubborn and hot-tempered martinet, though a gallant soldier, he alienated the sympathy of his subordinates, quarrelled with De Leyrit, the Governor of Pondicherry, and was on bad terms with Bussy, of whose power and influence he was somewhat envious. He summoned the latter to join him in 1758, and the Marquis de Conflans was left in command of the Northern Circars. At this juncture Colonel Forde, sent by Clive from Bengal, landed at Vizagapatam with a small force of 500 English soldiers and 2,000 sepoys. He defeated Conflans at Condore; and in April, I759, he stormed Masulipatam, and broke at one blow the power of the French in the Northern Circirs, which were made over to the English East India Company. Meanwhile, Lally had invested Madras, but the arrival of an English fleet raised the siege. In 1760 Battle of Colonel (afterwards Sir Eyre) Coote won the decisive victory waadi of W'andiwash, in which Bussy was taken prisoner. The i760. English army then proceeded to invest Pondicherry, which was starved into capitulation in January, 176I. A few months later the hill-fortress of Gingee also surrendered. In the words of Orme:- 'That day terminated the long hostilities between the two rival European powers in Coromandel, and left not a single ensign of the French nation avowed by the authority of its Government in any part of India.' The French possessions were restored at the Peace of Paris (I763), on condition that they remained unfortified. Pondi- cherry was again taken in I778 and again restored in I783.