After his departure Dupleix broke the capitulation, seized and kept Madras, drove out the English settlers, and went on to strengthen the fortifications.

From Madras he turned against Fort St.
David, but the approach of an English squadron compelled him to raise the siege in March, 1747.
During this year the disasters to the French navy in the Atlantic, already related, left the English undisturbed masters of the sea.

In the following winter they sent to India the greatest European fleet yet seen in the East, with a large land force, the whole under the command of Admiral Boscawen, who bore a general's commission in addition to his naval rank.

The fleet appeared off the Coromandel coast in August, 1748.

Pondicherry was attacked by land and sea, but Dupleix made a successful resistance.