Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/138

132 set fire to the charges, which blowing up, communicated the mischief to several others, and the dread of catching this fire threw the whole division into confusion: fortunately none of the enemy were at hand to take advantage of it, and Captain Coote, who marched at the head of the grenadiers, immediately in the rear of the Sepoys, rallied them, and restored the line of march. By this time it was daylight, when a very thick fog, peculiar to the mornings of this season of the year in Bengal, began to overspread the ground. The line proceeded without farther interruption, until they came opposite to Omichund's garden, when they heard the sound of horse coming upon them on the full gallop from the right; on which they halted. This cavalry was a body of Persians excellently mounted, and stationed as an outguard to the Nabob, under that part of the Morattoe ditch, which encloses Omichund's garden: they were suffered to come within thirty yards before the line gave fire, which fell heavy, and killing many of them, the rest instantly dispersed in great confusion. The line then proceeded slowly, platoons constantly firing on either hand; whilst the field-pieces in the rear fired single balls forward, but obliquely outward, on each side of the line; but all without any immediate object; for the fog prevented any man from seeing beyond the ground on which he trod. About a mile to the south of the garden is a narrow causeway, raised several feet above the level of the country, with a ditch on each side; it leads from the east to the Morattoe ditch, and across it into the company's territory. The enemy had barricaded the passage; which it was intended to force, and from thence to proceed, as it were, back again, along the high road adjoining to and on the inside of the rampart, in order to attack the Nabob's quarters at the garden: but as soon as the first division of Sepoys changed their former direction and began to march along the causeway, the field-pieces in the rear, on the right of the line, continuing to fire forward, killed several of them: upon which the whole division sought their safety in the ditch on the other side of the causeway, and the troops who succeeded them crossed it likewise, not knowing what to do. As soon as this was reported to Colonel Clive, he ordered the whole line to continue crossing the