Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/124

116 Major Lawrence, on this disaster, determined to attack the trench with all the Europeans, who now crossed the rivulet, and advanced in a compact body, with a platoon of grenadiers at their head. The enemy kept up an irregular fire until the grenadiers came to the trench, and then they took flight along the southern side of the fort: The English troops immediately moved up to the breach, when the Tanjorine horse sallied again from, behind the tower; and were suffered to approach within fourteen yards before the first platoon gave its fire, which was so well directed that it struck down fourteen horsemen: this execution flung the rest into such confusion that they immediately fled back, and the troops mounting the breach, found it abandoned by the garrison, whom they discovered hurrying from all quarters of the fort to make their escape out of the opposite gateway: at the same time all the Tanjorine horse quitted their stations near the fort, and retreated to the westward. Some of the officers examining the different buildings of the fort, found in one of the chambers a Tanjorine lying on the ground desperately wounded, whom, incapable of moving without assistance, the garrison in their precipitate flight had neglected to carry off, altho' he was an officer of rank, and an Indian of a very high cast. He was taken care of, but with a sullen obstinacy refused every kind of assistance, and would not submit to the necessary operations, until he found that the surgeon intended to use force. He was no sooner left alone than he stripped off the bandages, and attempted to put an end to his life, by tearing open his wounds: some persons were therefore appointed to watch him continually, and he was removed into a thatched hut in a distant part of the fort, that his rest might not be disturbed. Finding himself constantly watched, he behaved for three days with so much composure, that they, to whose care he was entrusted, thought he was reconciled to life, and relaxing their attention, left him in the night, as they imagined asleep; but they were no sooner got to some distance, than the Tanjorine crept to the corner of the hut, where a lamp was burning, and with it set fire to the thatch, which, in that dry season of the year, caught the blaze so fiercely, that he was suffocated before it could be extinguished. Tips Indian fell a