Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/225

Book III. to action; and such was the opinion entertained of their courage, that none of the rest of the allies would venture to fight without them.

Major Lawrence continuing his march, arrived in the evening at Tritchinopoly, and the next day conferred with the Nabob and the other generals on the plan of their future operations: they concurred in opinion that a general attack should be made without delay on the enemy's camp; but when the time was to be fixed, he found both Moors and Indians so attached to lucky and unlucky days, that several were likely to be lost before they would agree in the notion of a fortunate hour, without which none of them thought it safe to risk an engagement. In the mean time, thinking it not prudent to suffer the enemy to recover from the impression which they had received on the day of his arrival, he determined to attempt as much against them as could be executed with his own force; and perceiving that the French posts were too strongly fortified to be carried without the assistance of the whole army, he resolved to attack the camp of Chunda-saheb, which extended along the river without entrenchments. On the 1st of April at night, captain Dalton, with 400 men, was ordered to march, and, by taking a large circuit, to come in at the eastern extremity of the enemy's camp, which he was to enter, beat up, and set fire to. The English troops, from their long inactivity, knew so little of the ground about Tritchinopoly, that they were obliged to trust to Indian guides; and these being ordered to conduct them out of the reach of the enemy's advanced posts, fell into the other extreme, and led them several miles out of their way, and through such bad roads, that when the morning star appeared, they found themselves between Elimiserum and the French rock, two miles from Chunda-saheb's camp, and in the center of all their posts. The approach of day not only rendered it impossible to surprize the enemy, as was intended, but likewise exposed the party, if they persisted, to the danger of being surrounded by their whole force: it was therefore determined to march back without delay to Tritchinopoly. The French discovered them as they were retreating, and guessing at the intention for which they had been sent, thought themselves no longer safe to the south of the Caveri, and took the resolution of retreating that