Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/237

Book III. Every common soldier in an Indian army is accompanied either by a wife or a concubine; the officers have several, and the generals whole seraglio's: besides these the army is encumbered by a number of attendants and servants exceeding that of the fighting men; and to supply the various wants of this enervated multitude, dealers, pedlars, and retailers of all sorts, follow the camp; to whom a separate quarter is allotted, in which they daily exhibit their different commodities in greater quantities and with more regularity than in any fair in Europe; all of them sitting on the ground in a line with their merchandises exposed before them, and sheltered from the sun by a mat supported by sticks.

The next morning, the 15th, at sun-rise, six pieces of cannon began to fire upon the camp from embrasures cut through the top of the mound, which sheltered them from the guns of Pitchandah. This unexpected annoyance soon created the greatest confusion: the enemy began immediately to strike their tents, and every one to remove every thing that was either valuable or dear to him: elephants, camels, oxen and horses, mingled with men, women and children affrighted and making lamentable outeries at the destruction which fell around them, pressed to get out of the reach of it in such a hurry as only served to retard their flight: however, in two hours not a tent was standing. The crowd first moved between the pagodas of Seringham and Jumbakistna, towards the bank of the Caveri, and from this side they were fired on by the guns of Tritchinopoly: they then homed to the eastward of Jumbakistna, where finding themselves out of the reach of danger, they began to set up their tents again. The garrison of Pitchandah attempted to interrupt the cannonade; and finding that their artillery had no effect to dismount the English guns covered by the mound, they made a sally to seize them, but had not proceeded far before they received the fire of a detachment, which captain Clive had taken the precaution to post in the way they were coming; and this instantly drove them back again, not without some loss. During the rest of the day, the English troops were employed in erecting the battery in a ruined village, about 200 yards to the north of Pitchandah. The pagoda, like most others on the coast of Coromandel, is a square, of which the gateways projecting beyond the