The envoys had
been politely received, and some of them had proceeded to France,
where Tippoo's proposal had been accepted. They committed France,
indeed, to nothing, as she was already at war with England; but the
French were extremely glad to embrace the proposal of Tippoo, as they
overrated his power, and believed that he would prove a formidable
opponent to the English, and would necessitate the employment of
additional troops and ships there, and so weaken England's power at
home. To confirm the alliance, some sixty or seventy Frenchmen, mostly
adventurers, were sent from the Mauritius as civil and military
officers.
Tippoo's council had been strongly opposed to this step on his part.
They had pointed out to him that their alliance, with a power at war
with the English, would render war between the English and him
inevitable; and that France was not in a position to aid them in any
way. The only benefit, indeed, that he could gain, was the possibility
that the fourteen thousand French troops, in the service of the Nizam,
might revolt and come over to him; but even this was doubtful, as
these were not troops belonging to the French government, but an
independent body, raised and officered by adventurers, who might not
be willing to imperil their own position, and interests, by embarking
on a hazardous war at the orders of a far-distant government.
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