Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/280

272 But lest the enemy should imagine that he was totally dispirited, if he should remain inactive, captain Dalton determined to make some attempt, which, at the same time that it might be executed without much risque, might make them believe he was still in a capacity to act in the field. They had a post about four miles west of Tritchinopoly, at a pagoda called Velore, where the guard prevented the country people from carrying provisions into the city. The pagoda had a strong stone wall, and they had choaked up the great gate with mud, leaving at the bottom a wicket, by which only one man could enter at a time, and this they carefully shut every evening: 30 Europeans marched in a dark night, and having concealed themselves in a watercourse near the gate, a serjeant of artillery, carrying a barrel of gun powder with a long sausage to it, went forward, and digging, placed the barrel under the wicket unobserved, although the centinel was sitting at the top of the gate singing a Moorish song: the explosion not only brought down the mud-work, but also blew up the terrace of the gateway, with the guard asleep on it, so that the soldiers entered immediately without difficulty, and having fresh in their memory the loss of their comrades at the choultry, put all the Mysoreans they met to the sword. The regent, convinced by this exploit that famine would be the surest means of reducing the garrison, ordered a party of 200 horse to lie on the plain every night, between the city and the country of the Polygar Tondiman, from whence alone provisions were obtained: they seized some of the people bringing in rice, and according to their ancient and barbarous custom, cut off their noses, and sent them thus mangled to Tritchinopoly. This cruelty struck such a terror, that for some days no one would venture to bring in supplies: in order therefore to dislodge this detachment, 400 men, Sepoys and Europeans, with two field pieces, marched in the evening and took possession of the ground where they used to pass the night; the enemy coming up some, time after, did not discover their danger before they received the fire of the troops, which immediately put them to flight, and by their outcries it was imagined they suffered considerably.