Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c56.s5: § 6. Perron's treachery analysed
Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c56.s5
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§ 6. Perron's treachery analysed
v4.c56.s5.1
Perron was no doubt a traitor,—but to Sindhia alone. He never deceived himself into the belief that his four brigades of blacks officered by mestizoes, could stand up to the British Indian army stiffened by six thousand white troops from Home,—the veterans of American and Continental warfare. And yet he did not warn Daulat Rao to avoid war with the English, as De Boigne had done throughout his Indian career. A man of honour would have given Sindhia this advice at the first sign of an anti-British plot being hatched at his Court, and if his advice had been rejected, he would have at once resigned. Perron never really meant to fight the English, and yet he humoured Daulat Rao in pursuing a policy which was sure to lead to a fatal conflict with the British, while concealing his real intentions. He clung to his post till the very outbreak of the war with the English, in order to get more time for piling up his private fortune.
v4.c56.s5.2
It was reported to Resident Collins by Sindhia's ministers in 1802 that Perron annually collected 80 lakhs from the Hindustan territory entrusted to him, but accounted for only 40 lakhs to his master. Thus he made a net profit of 40 lakhs every year, to which he added his lawful salary, commission on tribute collection and other emoluments,—another gain of 18 lakhs. Every month that he continued in Sindhia's service meant an increase of five lakhs in his hoard, and from this sordid motive he ruined his master and left his soldiers in the lurch to be butchered by the English, without giving them time to form and accustom themselves to an indigenous body of commanders in the place of the mercenary foreigners who had run away. The fabulous wealth which enabled a French weaver's son to buy a seigneurie at Fresne, live as a Nawab, and marry his daughters to French noblemen bearing historic names like Montesquiou, Oudinot, and Rochefoucauld,—was acquired by dishonourable means. His treachery was only exceeded by his cowardice.