Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/573

 (iiAr. IX. 1 SURAJAH DOWLAH. " 539

•

cannon, into the adjoining thickets. Here, from tliree in the afternoon till a.d. irse. (lark, an incessant fire was kept up by both sides without any result. At mid- iiiglit all was still, and Ensign Pischard, whq commanded the redoubt, suspecting from what he had learned on the Coromandel coast of the Indian mode of war- fare, that the enemy were buried in sleep, crossed the rivulet with his party, seized and spiked their four guns, cleared the thickets, and returned without the loss of a man. '

On the following day the nabob chanfjed his tactics. Omidiund's chief peon state of Fort 'had not stabbedjiimself piortally; and, still breathing indignation and revenge, had caused himself to be carried to. the enemy's camp. By his advice the attack on the north was abandoned, and an entrance was easily effected from the east, through various passages where there were no defenders. The suburbs were thus in the hands of the enemy, who set fire to the great bazaar, and took pos- session of the quarter which had been inhabited 1 y the principal Indian mer- chants. An unavailing attempt 'was made to dislodge them, and the space left to the defenders became gi'adually morfe and more contracted. Had the fort been considered tenable they would probably have at once retired into it, and by thus concentrating their efforts made them more efficient. Fort William, however, like that of Cossimbazar, scarcely deserved the name. It stood near the river, about half-way between the north and i-outh extremities of the Com- pany's territory, and formed nearly h parallelogram, of which the longest sides, the east and west, were each 200 yards; the breadth on the south side was 130, and on the north only 100 yards. The walls, not more than four feet thick, formed the outer side of chambers, and were in several places pierced with windows; the terraced roofs of these chambers supplied the place of ramparts. The four bastions, one at each angle, were e.ach mounted with ten guns, but the two on the south side were rendered useless to each other by a line of ware- houses which had been built contimious to the wall. The roofs of the warehouses were, however, strong enough to bear the firing of three-pounders, which were mounted on them. The east gateway, forming a considerable projection, was mounted witii five guns, three in front and one on each flank. Besides these, which formed the proper works of the fort, a line of heavy cannon, mounted in embrasures of solid masonry, was placed outside, on the brink of the river, under the west wall.

It is plain from this description how very little engineering skill had been work.sof employed in the construction of the fort. In addition to other disadvantages it defectiM was overlooked by the English Church, opposite to the north-east bastion, and several other houses belonginff to the English town, which consisted for the most part of spacious detached inclosures, and occupied the gi'ound 000 j-ards towards the east and half-a-mile to the north and south of the fort. Taking all these things into consideration, it is easy to understand the reluctance of the defenders to allow themselves to be cooped u]> within the fort, and their consequent anxiety