Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/84

76 failed to arrive in time. The other detachment nevertheless advanced without hesitation to the attack. The river was fordable, and they passed it without loss, notwithstanding they were exposed to the fire of the enemy's artillery, which, as usual, was very ill served. As soon as they gained the opposite bank, they gave a general fire of their small arms, and then attacked with their bayonets. The Moors, unaccustomed to such hardy and precipitate onsets, gave way, and retreated into the town, where they again made a shew of resistance from behind some pallisadoes which they had planted in different parts of the south side. The French continued to advance in good order, and no sooner fired from three or four platoons than the Moors gave way again; when the horse and foot falling back promiscuously on each other in the narrow streets of the town, the confusion of the throng was so great, that they remained for some time exposed to the fire of the French, without being able to make resistance, or to retreat. Many were killed before the whole army could get out of the town, and gain the plain to the westward. Their general, Maphuze Khan, mounted on an elephant, on which the great standard of the Carnatic was displayed, was one of the first who made his escape. They were scarcely fled out of the town before the detachment from Madrass arrived, and assisted in the pillage of the enemy's baggage, among which were some valuable effects: many horses and oxen, and some camels were likewise taken. It is said, that the French troops murdered some of the Moors whom they found concealed in the houses they were plundering. This defeat struck such a terror into the Nabob's army, that they immediately retreated some miles from Madrass," and soon after returned to Arcot. It was now more than a century since any of the European nations had gained a decisive advantage in war against the officers of the Great Mogul. The experience of former unsuccessful enterprizes, and the scantiness of military abilities which prevailed in all the colonies, from a long disuse of arms, had persuaded them that the Moors were a brave and formidable enemy; when the French at once broke through the charm of this timorous opinion, by defeating a whole army with a single battalion.