On the 15th of May Clive captured Paichandah, and then determined to
give a final blow to D'Auteuil's force; which had, he learned, again
set out to endeavour to relieve Law. He marched to Utatua to intercept
him.
D'Auteuil, hearing of his coming, instantly fell back again to
Valconda. The native chief of this town, however, seeing that the
affairs of the French were desperate; and willing, like all his
countrymen, to make his peace with the strongest, had already accepted
bribes from the English; and upon D'Auteuil's return, closed the gates
and refused to admit him. Clive soon arrived, and D'Auteuil, caught
between two fires, surrendered with his whole force.
Had Law been a man of energy, he had yet a chance of escape. He had
still seven or eight hundred French troops with him, two thousand
Sepoys, and four thousand of Chunda Sahib's troops. He might, then,
have easily crossed the Kavari at night and fallen upon Lawrence,
whose force there now was greatly inferior to his own. Chunda Sahib,
in vain, begged him to do so. His hesitation continued until, three
days after the surrender of D'Auteuil, a battering train reached
Lawrence; whereupon Law at once surrendered, his chief stipulation
being that the life of Chunda Sahib should be spared.
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