"Pondicherry [INDES FRANÇAISES]. Bound manuscript entitled ""Conduite de Monsieur de Lally depuis son arrivée dans l'inde jusqu'à la destruction de Pondichéry arrivé le 15 janvier 1761"". 18th century. Approx. 184 pp. in-folio. Bound in supple vellum with covers and laces, speckled edges. Some erasures. Missing and soiled binding. Light spotting at head of leaves. A very interesting manuscript work dedicated to Lally-Tollendal and Bussy's period of governance in the Indies. Thomas Arthur de Lally-Tollendal, Commander General of all French establishments in the Indies, went to defend the French Indies against the English, following Dupleix. Defeated, he capitulated in 1761. French aid fell to the English. Taken prisoner, Lally was taken to England, where he was imprisoned under a lettre de cachet. He was beheaded in 1766 for high treason and corruption. He left a harsh indictment of the Marquis de Bussy, who had assisted him during the siege of Pondicherry. A long and fascinating account of this period. "Dear reader, the extraordinary nature of the facts I'm about to tell you about, and the lengths to which certain individuals will go to alter the truth or deny its existence, will more than once give you reason to doubt their reality; I'll leave it to time to dispose of your doubts, but sooner or later the truth will come out, and those who are the last to perceive it are often its most zealous defenders. Witness to everything I say, witness to everything I have to tell, I claim to follow no other guide than frankness and sincerity, without prejudice or prejudice. My aim is neither to attack nor to deffend, but to console myself by recounting in a natural and artless way the misfortunes of my nation in India and the evils I endure and feel like so many others without having deserved them. The public and private cries, the testimonies of all the European nations spread along the Coromandel coast and of all the peoples who inhabit India from Pondicherry to Dély will leave you nothing to be desired in terms of the clarifications you may wish for. Moreover, it would be doing me an injustice to seek from me anything other than the truth in all its candor and sincerity: I love it and I stand by it [...]". A similar work appears in the catalog of the Nantes library (by Péhant), under inventory number 53805. Attached is an unrelated parchment from 1778. Expert: Emmanuel Lorient."