[410] Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet, Maréchal Duc de Belle-Isle (1684-1761), father of the Comte de Gisors and grandson of Fouquet (vide infra), created a marshal of France, after meritorious services, in 1700. His finest feat of arms was his masterly retreat from Prague in 1742. He was Minister for War from 1757 till his death.—T.
[411] The French were defeated by the Brunswickers, at Crefeld, on the 23rd of June 1758.—T.
[412] Nicolas Fouquet, Marquis de Belle-Isle (1615-1680), Superintendent of Finance from 1652 to 1661, is more celebrated for the disgrace that followed on his administration than for that administration itself. He was arrested and condemned for peculation in 1661 and imprisoned at Pignerol, in Piedmont, where he died in 1680, after nineteen years' captivity. He retained many good friends during his reverses of fortune, notably La Fontaine, who sang his sufferings, and Madame de Sévigné.-T.
[413] 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.
[414] Joseph François Marquis Dupleix (1697-1764) was Governor of the French East Indies from 1742 to 1754. In the war which ensued on his breach of faith (vide supra), he displayed a courage and capacity that went far to atone for the wrong he had undoubtedly committed. For forty-two days, he defended Pondicherry against a formidable English fleet and an army on land, and he added a great tract of country to the French dominions. Puffed out by his successes, he ended by struggling against the French East India Company itself, whose agent he was, when it tried to oppose his enterprises. Ruined at last by all these wars, he strove for a time to conceal the real state of things: the truth became known, and he was recalled (1754). He spent the rest of his life in bringing actions against the Company for sundry millions of francs advanced to them and died in poverty and humiliation, in Paris, in 1764.—T.
[415] 1 November 1755.—T.
[416] Robert first Lord Clive of Plassey (1725-1774) started on his first expedition against Bengal in 1756. He won the Battle of Plassey on the 23rd of June 1757 and was Governor of Bengal from 1758 to 1760 and from 1765 to 1767. Clive committed suicide in London on the 22nd of November 1774.—T.
[417] Robert François Damiens (1715-1757) made an unsuccessful attempt on the life of King Louis XV. on the 5th of January 1757. He succeeded in stabbing him. The punishment inflicted on Damiens was one of the most serious known in history: his right hand was burnt in a slow fire; his flesh was torn with pincers and burnt with melted lead; resin, wax and oil were poured upon the wounds; and he was torn to pieces by four horses.—T.
[418] The Family Compact was a treaty signed on the 15th of August 1761 between the Kings of France, Spain and the Two Sicilies and the Duke of Parma, and so-called because all the contracting parties belonged to the Bourbon Family. The object of this treaty, of which the Duc de Choiseul was the chief author, was to counteract the superiority of the British Navy by the union of the French, Spanish and Italian forces.—T.
[419] Cf. Vol. I., p. 139, n. 1.—T.