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'THOU DIDST NOT LOVE.'

(From the Italian.)

THOU didst not love-then woe to thee!

If the birds should whisper it unto the sea,
Or if a fragrant breath of air

Up to the stars thy sin should bear,

The stars and sea could they but know
Would turn from thee their light and glow.

Thou didst not love-then woe to thee!
If thy secret be whispered unto the tree
When worn and sad thy feet have strayed
To rest thee 'neath its quiet shade,

The leaves and stem, should they have guessed,
Would grudge thee e'en their shade and rest.

Thou didst not love! when thou dost lie

Alone upon thy narrow bed,

Then woe to thee, if the night-owl's cry

Betray thee to the quiet dead.

The grave itself, could it but know,

Would scarcely grant thee rest below.

Thou didst not love, and shouldst thou fly
Beyond the starry heights above,

Thy fate would track thee to the sky,
And tell the tale of perjured love,
The avenging angels shut the gate,
And bid thee learn to love, too late!

CAMEOS FROM ENGLISH HISTORY.

CAMEO CCCVII.

1744-1750.

THE FRENCH IN INDIA.

To tell the history of India before that country became the outlet of British enterprise and energy would be a vain attempt. The vast region, containing many varieties of races, extending from the Himalayas to the Southern Ocean, had, as the staple of the population, Hindoos, of Aryan blood like the European nations, whose simple nature worship and scanty traditions had developed into a complicated superstitious idolatry. Gautama had tried to reform it by his system of Buddhism, somewhat purer, but rapidly degenerating more or less, and in many cases resulting in an additional idol being added to the rest.

The Mongul Tartars conquered great part of the country about the year A.D. 1000, and established a very splendid Mogul Empire with Delhi for the capital. They brought Islam with them, but it continued to be the religion of the Conquerors, and was not adopted by the body of the natives, nor by the numerous Rajahs or vassal princes, many of whom had never been really subdued, any more than the mountain tribes. The power of the Emperors began in time to wane, and they had fierce struggles with the native princes, especially the Mahrattas, a warlike Hindoo people.

In the great European burst of naval and commercial enterprise, the Portuguese found their way to India first of all, and established their trade at Goa and Bombay, which became, under the influence of St. Francis Xavier, a missionary centre. The Dutch, when learning their own maritime strength, likewise won their way to settlements, though chiefly in Ceylon and the islands.

An English company had been formed for trading with India in those first days of trading companies under James I. In 1661, as part of the dowry of Catharine of Braganza, the King

of Portugal ceded Bombay, an island close upon the western coast, to Charles II., who made it over to the East India Company.

Factories, which meant places where merchants might live, collect goods from the interior, and receive articles of trade from home, shipping others off in exchange, were established on the coast, and made strong enough to repel attacks from robbers, or wild tribes. In 1690, the English purchased the Zemindary, or vassal right to their factory at Calcutta, and a district on the Hooghly, the estuary of the Ganges, which they protected with a fort called after King William. Madras, which also had its factory, was guarded by Fort St. David. Each place, Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, was called a Presidency, had a governor and members, who by charter had a right of administering English law.

Louis XIV. and Colbert looked with emulation on English Eastern commerce, and though the French never took kindly to distant enterprises, they succeeded in forming a French East India Company, which had three factories: at Pondicherry, at Chandernagore, not far from Calcutta, and at Karical. The company was not popular in France, and till the middle of the last century, neither nation effected anything remarkable, except that the resident directors lived in extreme luxury and splendour, and it may be feared dissipation, amassing enormous fortunes which they sometimes brought home, if they survived.

The first man of mark who had a definite policy of progress in Hindostan was Joseph Dupleix, a Gascon by family, the son of the Comptroller-General of Hainault, who, going out very young to India, became head of the establishment at Chandernagore, which he fortified and provided with a fleet. His wife was the daughter of a French merchant settled in India, and was familiar with the languages, and all the intricate relations of the Rajahs. They lived in Eastern magnificence, and she was commonly called Princess Jeanne. Dupleix was promoted to be Governor of Pondicherry, and thence he commenced a system of intrigues, assisting one native power against another, and fomenting their differences with a view to ousting the English, and obtaining, actual territory for France. When the war of the Austrian succession broke out in 1744, actual hostilities began. Commodore Peyton, who commanded a small fleet, was twice worsted by Bertrand Mahé de La Bourdonnais, the governor of Mauritius, who, in September 1746, made a sudden descent upon

Madras. The English, who had reckoned on assistance from the Nawab of the Carnatic, were not prepared, and surrendered at once, promising to pay a considerable amount as ransom for the place. There were express instructions from France that no places captured in the East Indies should be retained. The money was slowly raised, and was carried to Pondicherry, La Bourdonnais was anxious to set sail for the islands before the season of storms, when Dupleix interfered, declaring that his instructions were to dismantle and destroy Madras and deliver it up to the Nawab of the Carnatic, who was on his march to receive it. La Bourdonnais, an honourable man, was furious at this breach of the treaty; Dupleix threatened to arrest him, and he imprisoned the envoys from Pondicherry. In the midst a terrible hurricane shattered his fleet, and he could barely escape to Mauritius in a little vessel. Poor man, he there found a new governor, appointed in consequence of Dupleix's misrepresentations, and accusations of having been bribed to accept

a ransom.

The two islands, Mauritius, and Bourbon, owed all their prosperity to him, but prosecution had already commenced against him at Paris, and he hastened home with his wife and four children, but the ship was captured by the English, and he came to London as a prisoner. There he was honourably received and much respected. Indeed, one of the directors of the East India Company offered to become surety for him, to the extent of his whole fortune. But in France he was thrown into the Bastille, and kept 'Au secret' for two whole years. He came out with fortune wasted in the suit, and health shattered, so that he soon after died; but Dupleix's dishonourable treatment of him and of the English had sown thorns which were to produce the bitter fruit of retribution.

There was a young man in Madras who was destined to disconcert Dupleix and to become the founder of British greatness in India. Robert Clive, born in 1725, was the son of a Shropshire squire. He had always been a vehement eager boy, full of enterprise, and heedless of danger. At Market Drayton, where he spent some years at school, he was the terror of the shop-keepers, from the tricks in which he was the leader, and once, having set his mind on a smooth stone that lay on one of the dragon headed gargoyles of the church, he climbed up after it, and there sat coolly balancing himself above the heads of his companions.

In 1743, when only eighteen, he was sent out to India, with the appointment of a writer. Voyages were most tardy and uncertain matters, and he was delayed for nine months in Brazil, where he so far profited as to learn Portuguese, but found on reaching Madras, that the person expected to befriend him, had gone home. He had a morbid tendency to depression always about him, owing to illnesses in early life, and he suffered extremely in his dreary position, where he had not one familiar acquaintance, and declared that he had not enjoyed a happy hour since he left England. He was at the same time abrupt and rude, so as to give offence, and prevent much social intercourse, and his chief solace was an excellent library in Government House, where he read and studied to considerable purpose.

Angered and grieved by the surrender of Madras, and the treachery of Dupleix, he made his escape in disguise, together with another young man, Edmund Maskelyne, and reached Fort St. David, when he asked for and obtained a commission in the small army raised and maintained by the East India Company for the defence of its possessions.

Then the French made attempts to take the Fort of St. David, but, in 1748, Admiral Boscawen and Major Lawrence determined on besieging Pondicherry, the one on the sea, the other on the land side. But on disembarking, a fort checked them, and they then came to an impassable marsh. The only ground where they could place their cannon was too far off to be of much use, though Dupleix, who was commanding, was slightly wounded, upon which his high-spirited lady took his place. The rains came on early, and the English sickened, and grew dispirited, so that on the 20th of October, after rather more than three weeks, the siege was raised, and Dupleix glorified himself in his letters

It was during a sortie of the French that Clive, who was serving in a battery, ran to fetch more powder. An officer accused him of running out of cowardice. He went with a friend to demand satisfaction, but the accuser struck him a blow on the ear. Swords were at once drawn, but the two were separated. As soon as the siege was given up, a court of inquiry was held, and the aggressor was ordered to ask pardon publicly for the words, but the blow was not mentioned, and when Clive demanded satisfaction for this, it was refused, whereupon he laid his cane on the officer's head, saying, that he could not think of thrashing such a contemptible coward. On this his enemy gave up his commission.

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