Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/130

124 selves with much resolution, endeavouring to rally their men, but in vain. In 'the mean time, the company of volunteers, as soon as they heard the firing, marched back from the high road, and rescued the field-pieces, of which some of the enemy had taken possession, but did not know how to use them. Upon this, the artillery-men returned from the line to the field-pieces, and immediately began to fire them into the village, which soon drove all the enemy out of it, who fled as fast as they could to join a large body of horse, which was now discovered advancing from the south towards the hollow: but, on perceiving the fugitives coming from the village, this cavalry halted at the distance of half a mile. On this the English troops, with the field-pieces, formed regularly on the plain, and advanced towards the enemy, who were commanded by Monickchund. They stood several shot from the field-pieces, until one chanced to pass very near the turban of Monickchund, who immediately gave the signal of retreat by turning his elephant, and the whole body marched away to the north-east and returned to Calcutta. Had the cavalry advanced and charged the troops in the hollow, at the same time that the infantry began to fire upon the village, it is not improbable that the war would have been concluded on the, very first trial of hostilities. As soon as the enemy retreated, the troops marched to the village on the bank of the river, from whence the detachment posted there was advancing to join them. By this time the Kent, having outsailed the other ships, anchored before Buz-buzia, and alone silenced the cannon of that fort; but the troops having already undergone so much fatigue, it was determined to defer the assault until the next morning. They passed the rest of the day in the village, without giving or receiving any molestation, and in the evening were joined by 250 sailors from the squadron. One of these having got drunk, straggled, at eight in the evening, to the ditch of the fort, which he crossed, and scrambled up the rampart; where, finding no centinels he hallooed to the advanced guards in the village that he had taken the fort; on which they quitted their post, and joined him on the rampart, when they found the place evacuated