Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/208

200 as soon as they arrived began to batter in breach at the distance of 200 yards: the enemy had no cannon, but fired very smartly with their musketry, which killed several men at the battery, and lieutenant Bulkley, reconnoitering the pagoda over a garden-wall in company with captain Clive, was shot through the head close by his side. The wall resisted three days before it began to give way, when the garrison, conscious of their demerits, and dreading the just resentment of the English, abandoned the pagoda in the night, but left behind the two prisoners. After ruining the defences of Conjeveram, captain Clive sent 200 Europeans and 500 Sepoys to Arcot, and returned in the middle of December with the rest to Madrass; from whence he went to Fort St. David, to give an account of his campaign to the presidency.

During these successes in the province of Arcot, Chunda-saheb beleaguered Tritchinopoly. The French battalion fixed their quarters at a village called Chuckly-pollam, on the southern bank of the Caveri, about two miles and a half from the east side of the town. The troops of Chunda-saheb, for the convenience of water, encamped likewise along the bank of the river, and to the eastward of Chuckly-pollam, which post secured one of the flanks of their camp, and at the other extremity of it, three miles distant, they raised a redoubt, on which they mounted two pieces of cannon. The French, on whom the operations of the siege principally depended, sent to then settlement of Karical for a train of battering artillery; and in the beginning of September they raised their principal battery a little to the south of the north-east angle of the town, and at the distance of 1200 yards from the walls. To save the fatigue of carrying on trenches between this post and the camp, they afterwards made the battery a regular redoubt, by inclosing it on both flanks and in the rear with a parapet and a deep ditch; here they mounted three 8 pounders, and three mortars, which were defended by a constant guard of 100 Europeans and 400 Sepoys. They likewise mounted two 18 pounders on a rock, which has ever since obtained the name of the French rock, and is situated about 2000 yards directly east from the south-east angle of the town; they also raised a battery of two guns on the island of Seringham, from which they fired across