Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/643

 Chap. XI. J TUE SIEGE RAISED. G0<)

[)ort She added nothing to the strengtli of the garrison, for the only soldiers on a.d. 1759.

board were thirty-six men, all sick ; but she brought what was become even more necessary than men — thirty-seven chests of silver, and a large quantity of mili- tary stores. On the 7th of February a breach was made, which Lall}-, who was a breach naturally sanguine and had become very impatient, thought practicable. His engineers and artillery officers on being consulted, were not only of a different opinion, but volunteered, though unasked, to add, that the continuance of the siege seemed to them only a sacrifice of the lives of men without any proba- bility of success. Lally, though he combated this desponding view with much vivacity, could hardly avoid perceiving that there was only too great a proba- bility of its eventually proving correct. During the first weeks of the siege, the soldiers had received only half- pay; latterly, their pay had been stopped alto- gether ; and while the native troops were gradually thinning away by desertion, tlie Europeans were threatening to become mutinous. The gunpowder was nearly, and the bomb-shells wholly expended, and it was only with the utmost difficulty that a precarious and very inadequate supply of provisions could be procured. Amid all these discouraging circumstances, the garrison, already strong enougli to make a successful defence, was in daily expectation of a powerful reinforcement. Nothing more was necessary than its arrival to compel an instant abandonment of the siege. The ships, long detained by contrary winds and cur- rents, which had obliged them to make their voyage by proceeding along the east coast of the Bay of Bengal, at length, on the 1 Gth of February, made their appearance in the north-east, steering directly for the road. "No words," says Amvaior Lally, "are adequate to describe the effect which they produced.' His resolu- fleet. tion was at once taken, but as a cloak to it, he kept up his fire with more vivacity than before. The rumour again spread that the assault was about to be made, and the garrison were once more kept a whole night under arms. This ap})a- rent activity and resolution was only a feint ; and when morning dawned the besiegers were seen in full march towards the Choultry Plain. So hurried was their departure, that Lally was unable to execute the resolution which he had formed from the first to reduce the Black Town to ashes, in the event of being compelled to raise the siege, and besides leaving cannon amounting in all to fifty-two pieces, he did not even attempt to transport his sick and wounded. It was not an oversight ; for in the hospital where forty-two Europeans were lying, a letter was found, in which he recommended them to the governor's care. It is needless to say that no such recommendation was required in order to secure the performance of a simple act of humanity. The whole loss of men by the gar- rison during the siege, including those who deserted or were taken prisoners, amounted to 579 Europeans and 7G2 sepoys ; the loss of the besiegers is not tiic siege

. /» • raised.

accurately known, but it has been inferred from an intercepted letter of Lall}-, ^L that it must have amounted in Europeans alone to at letist 700. Considering

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