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 ^■2^ IILSTOIIY OF INDIA. [Book III

A.D.1760. On the IGth lio advanced six miles nearer the former town. Meantime Busnys horse and the Malirattas continued their course of plunder to Huch an extent, that the inhabitants took refuge in the forts and woods, and ceased tfj Ijinng in any supplies of provisions to the British camp, which was in consequence threat- ened with starvation. To increase their difficulties, the rain began to fall in torrents. As the be.st alternative that now remained, Coote quitted liis position and placed his army in cantonments in Coverypauk and the adjacent villages. Shortly after Coote's retirement, Lally, who had Ijeen exerting him.self to the utmost, quitted Chittapet with a largely augmented force, and advanced to Arcot. This movement compelled Coote again to take the Held, and he took up a strong position at a point nearly equidistant from Arcot and CoverjT:»auk Here, with a large tank in front, a morass on each flank, and a rear accessible only along a causeway, he remained on the defensive, both becaase the enemy was far superior to him in cavalry, and he was waiting the result of a negotia- tion by which it was hoped that the Mahrattas might be gained over to liLs side. Lally, too, waiting for the return of the reinforcement which had arrived too late to save Masulipatam, and mistrusting the spirit of his European troops after their late mutiny, had good reasons for not assuming the offensive. Both armies consequently remained within their encampments. ^^"y In the beginning of January, 1760, the negotiation with the Mahrattas again

conjeTeram terminated in favour of the French. The Madras pre.sidency offered 00,000 rupees, but proposed to pay in conditional bills ; the French sent the same sum in ready money, and were of course prefeiTcd. On the 8th of January, Innis Khan, Morari Row's general, joined their camp with a new body of 3000 moiuited, and a greater number of foot plunderers. Lally's star seemed once more in the ascendant, and he quitted his encampment to commence active operations. Coote suspected that the recovery of Wandiwash was his object, and sent orders to the officer whom he had left in command to defend it to the last extremity. At the same time, sending off his baggage to Cover^q^auk, he began to move eastward along the north bank of the Paliar. Lally kept moving at some distance from the southern bank at a very slow pace. He had an object in view, and was pre- paring to gain it by a stratagem. He had been told that the British army derived its supplies of rice from large magazines of it stored at Conjeveram. In this belief he executed a series of dexterous manoeuvres to cover his design, and as soon as it was dark set out, taking nearly all the cavalry of his army and a body of 300 sepoys, with the utmost expedition crossed the Paliar, and after a march of fifteen miles, pounced suddenly upon that town at eight o'clock in the morning. He had no difficulty in entering it, but it was only to meet disap- pointment. His information had been false. The stores of rice were imaginary, and the plunder found within the town was almost wortliless. The pagoda, indeed, contained a stock of military stores ; but it was a place of some strength, occupied by two companies of sepoys under an English Heutenant ; and as he had