Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/218

210 Conjeveram. It was then not doubted that they had received advice of the weakness of the garrison at Arcot; and that they intended to take advantage of it by making a sudden assault on the fort. Captain Clive therefore made a forced march of 20 miles to Conjeveram, where the garrison of the pagoda surrendered on the first summons; and a few hours after, the conjecture which had been made of the enemy's intentions was verified by news that they were in full march, towards Arcot. The troops were too much fatigued to follow them immediately, but the next day took the same rout; and on their march a letter was received from the commanding officer at Arcot, advising that they had entered the town, and skirmished against the fort with musketry for several hours in expectation that the gates would have been opened to them by two officers of the English Sepoys, with whom they had carried on a correspondence; but that the plot had been discovered, and the enemy finding their signals not answered, had quitted the city with precipitation, and it was not yet known what rout they had taken. In this uncertainty it was determined to hasten to Arcot.

The army arrived in sight of Covrepauk at sun-set, when the van marching in the high road without suspicion, were fired upon from the right at no greater distance than 250 yards, by nine pieces of cannon. These were the French artillery, posted in a thick grove of mango trees, which had a ditch and a bank in front: the fire did some mischief before it could be either answered or avoided; but luckily there was a water-course at a little distance to the left of the road, in which the infantry were ordered to take shelter, and the baggage to march back half a mile with one of the field pieces and a platoon to defend it; and two field pieces, supported by a platoon of Europeans with 200 Sepoys, were detached to oppose Rajah-saheb's cavalry which appeared extending themselves on the plain to the left of the water-course; in the meantime the rest of the artillery, drawn up n the right, answered the enemy's fire from the grove; the French infantry entered the water-course, and advanced along it in a column of six men in front: the English formed in the same order, and a fire was kept up on both sides for two hours, by moon-light, during which neither ventured to come to the push of bayonet. The enemy's