Note 413 — BOOK X[399]
Alexander Teixeira de Mattos translation
La Bourdonnais (Cf. Vol. I., p. 26, n. 6) was Governor-General of the Isles of France and Bourbon when, in 1743, he went to the assistance of Dupleix, Governor of French India, who was threatened by the English. La Bourdonnais laid siege to Madras and compelled it to capitulate (1746). By the terms of the capitulation, Madras was to be restored to the English on payment of a ransom. Dupleix quashed this capitulation and a collision arose between him and La Bourdonnais which was fatal to the latter. Furious at Dupleix's want of faith, La Bourdonnais evacuated Madras and went back as a private individual to the Isle of France, where he had been replaced in the command by the instructions of the masterful Dupleix. He returned to France, in 1748, to reply to the accusations levelled against him at the instance of his persecutor, was imprisoned in the Bastille and remained there for several years without receiving an opportunity of justifying himself. At last, in 1752, his innocence was established and he released; but he was a ruined man and he died in 1753 of a long and painful illness.—T.