Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/394

386 This town is without defences, and no body appeared to oppose their entrance into it: the renters of the open country followed the example of the capital, and acknowledged the Nabob without hesitation; but many of the neighbouring Polygars made pretences to evade the payment of the tribute due from them. The most considerable of these chiefs was Catabomanaig, whose country lies about fifty miles north-east from Tinivelly; and it being imagined that the inferior Polygars would not hold out long after he should have submitted, a detachment of 200 Europeans, and 500 Sepoys, with two field pieces, were sent to reduce him. Some days after another detachment, consisting of 100 Europeans, and 300 Sepoys, with two field pieces, were sent to attack the fort of Nelli-cotah, situated forty miles to the south of Tinivelly. These troops set out at midnight, and performed the march in eighteen hours: the Polygar, startled at the suddenness of their approach, sent out a deputy, who pretended he came to capitulate, and promised that his master would pay the money demanded of him, in a few days; but suspicions being entertained of his veracity, it was determined to detain him as a pledge for the execution of what he had promised, and he was delivered over to the charge of a guard. The troops were so much fatigued by the excessive march they had just made, that even the advanced centinels could not keep awake, and the deputy perceiving all the soldiers who were appointed to guard him, last asleep, made his escape out of the camp, and returned to the fort; from whence the Polygar had sent him only to gain time, in order to make the necessary preparations for his defence. This being discovered early in the morning, it was determined to storm the place, of which the defences were nothing more than a mud wall with round towers. The troops had brought no scaling ladders, but the outside of the wall was sloping, and had many clefts worn in it by the rain, so that the assault, although hazardous, was nevertheless practicable. It was made both by the Europeans and Sepoys with undaunted courage, in several parties at the same time; each of which gained the parapet without being once repulsed, when the garrison retired to the buildings of the fort, where they called out for quarter; but the soldiers, as usual in desperate assaults, were