Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/150

142 Nazir-jing, where he was immediately put into fetters: as soon as the prince was seized, his camp was attacked, and his troops surprised made little resistance: many were slain during the pursuit, for the Soubah's troops gave no quarter. A party of horse fell in with the French gunners, who had been abandoned by the rest of the battalion, and cut the greatest part of them to pieces. They would have destroyed the whole, had not the English rescued some of them from their fury; but most of these were wounded. The Morattoes commanded by Morari-row, pushed on in pursuit of the French battalion, and came up with it before it had gained the bound-hedge. Mr. d'Auteuil formed his men into a hollow square, which Morari-row attacked and broke into, with only 15 men, imagining that the rest of his party followed him; on seeing his danger when surrounded he immediately made another effort, and broke through the opposite side with six men, losing nine in this second attack. The Morattoes continued to harrass the army until they arrived at the bound-hedge: they killed 19 of the Europeans, and would have done more execution, had they not been vigorously opposed by the cavalry commanded by Chunda-saheb, who behaved with great activity and resolution during the retreat.

This victory intirely dispersed the army of Chunda-saheb and Murzafa-jing, and, together with the imprisonment of his rival, seemed to assure to Nazir-jing the quiet possession of the soubahship: but his capacity was unequal to the management of so great an employ, and treason began already to taint his councils. The Nabobs of Cudapa, Canoul, and Savanore, were the most considerable of the feudatory lords who had accompanied him into the Carnatic: they were all three, Pitans by birth, and possessed the daring temper which characterizes that nation. They had obeyed the summons of Nazir-jing, and taken the field without reluctance, because they made no doubt of obtaining, in reward of their military service, a remission of large sums they owed to the Mogul's treasury, as well as considerable immunities in their respective governments: but Nazir-jing, who assumed the full state of a soubah, paid no regard to their pretensions, and treated them as feudatories, who had done no more than their duty in joining the Mogul's standard. Disappointed in their expectations