Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/122

114 launched at some distance below the battery, and towed up to it against the stream. The raft could not be moved across the river unless by a rope fixed on the opposite bank; but the stations of the enemy rendered this a very hazardous enterprize: the same carpenter who had made the raft, offered to execute this service likewise, and in the middle of a very dark night swam over the river, carrying the end of a rope with him, which he fastened to the root of a large tree within a few yards of jone of the enemy's advanced guards, by whom he was not discovered.

The rope was sunk in the water, that the enemy might not perceive it; and the next day, at two in the afternoon, the first detachment of 400 Europeans, with three field pieces, embarked upon the raft; at the same time the four pieces of battering cannon, with six field pieces, began to fire with great vivacity upon the opposite thickets, to deter the Tanjorines from approaching the bank near enough to discover the rope. They were so much surprized at this new and unexpected manner of approach, that, fortunately, none of them guessed the means by which it was performed. The walls and towers of the Fort were manned with multitudes, who, as well as those under cover of the thickets, fired irregularly, but without intermission, from their matchlocks: but the detachment, although much galled, refrained from returning the fire, lest the bustle of handling their arms should overset the raft, which in a quarter of an hour gained the shore. The troops advanced immediately to dislodge the Tanjorines posted in the thickets, who retreated as soon as they were fired upon, and took shelter either within the fort, or behind the projections of the towers. The raft was sent back, and in the space of two hours made several passages, during which the enemy kept up a continual fire, both on the troops that were landed, and on those on the raft, and killed 30 Europeans and 50 Sepoys before the whole army had passed the river.

Major Lawrence determined to storm the breach without delay. The entrenchment which the Tanjorines intended to throw up before it, was left unfinished; for the Coolies quitted the work as soon as it was advanced so far as to place them in the line of the shot battering the walls. The part which was finished was nevertheless of some service, for it commanded the ground over which the English troops were obliged to march to the attack, and likewise flanked the breach