Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/157

Book II. within gun-shot of their entrenchments. The commander of the French troops sent a messenger to ask the reason why the English came so near their posts, and declared that if they did not immediately march away, he should in his own defence be obliged to fire upon them. Captain Cope replied, that the English acting as allies to the Nabob, were determined to accompany him into all parts of his dominions, and to assist him against all who should oppose his authority. The messenger was scarcely returned when a shot from the French entrenchment killed some of the English soldiers. It was answered from the two 18 pounders and four field pieces; and a cannonade ensued, which lasted from noon till night, when the English quitted their ground with the loss of 10 Europeans and 50 Sepoys, and 200 of the Nabob's troops were likewise killed: the French secured by their entrenchments, suffered much less. This ill success depressed Mahomed-ally as much as if the army had suffered a total defeat, and rendering him anxious to remove out of the neighbourhood of the enemy, he proposed to march to the west, pretending that his army could not subsist in their present situation, since all their provisions coming from Arcot, and the inland parts of the province, would be exposed to the French stations at Gingee, Valdore, and Trivadi. By accompanying the Nabob the English would have been of no other service than that of shewing him to the province in parade at the head of an army: but this, ridiculous as it may appear, was the very service he preferred to all others; since it would have produced not only the homage of the renters and farmers of the country, but likewise some money by the presents he would have obliged them to make. On the other hand, Captain Cope was instructed not to march beyond any of the French posts, lest his communication with Fort St. David should be cut off; and he was likewise ordered to endeavour by all means to bring the enemy to an engagement: he therefore insisted with the Nabob that the army should place themselves between the French camp and Pondicherry. There were no means of reconciling two opinions so directly opposite; and this disagreement indisposed the Nabob so much towards his allies, that when they demanded the money promised for their expences, he first made excuses, and at last declared he had none; having, as he said,