Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/241

Book VIII. not able to furnish a sufficiency. From hence they sailed on the 1st of August, add on the 9th of September, the day alter their arrival at Pondicherry, landed 983 men of Lorrain, of which 63 were sick, the 50 artillery-men, and 60 volunteers from Bourbon, with their equipages; besides which had been embarked in the ships, 20 pieces of battering cannon, some mortars, and a great number of bombs and balls. M. Soupires, who by his commission took the direction and command of all military operations, summoned a mixed council, of the military, the marine, and the civil government, in which he proposed that the ships and troops should immediately invest and blockade Fort St. David; but the letter from the presidency of Madrass to the English Admiral had been discovered in the Massoola, and raised such a consternation in the French squadron, by the apprehensions of seeing every hour a force superior to their own, that Mr. Bouvet declared he had done enough in landing the troops and should sail immediately back to the islands: no arguments could change his resolution, nor would he wait to disembark the artillery and heavy ammunition, because they served as part of the ballast in the different ships, which it would require fifteen days to shift and reinstate in a condition fit for sailing. Thus was much detriment prevented by the accident of discovering the letter, which, at the time it happened, was deemed a great mischance.

The sudden departure of the French ships diminished in some degree the apprehensions which had been raised by their arrival. The army from Conjeveram was ordered to encamp on the plain near Madrass; the detachment with Polier, which had returned as far as Tripassour, to march back and protect the feast at Tripetty, until concluded: and Calliaud was permitted to continue before Madura, if any chance remained of getting the place.

This officer, very infirm before, fell dangerously ill immediately after the repulse of the last attack, and was obliged to retire to the neighbouring village of Trivalore, where he remained until the 4th of August, before his health was sufficiently restored to endure the fatigues of the camp; however, this time was not entirely lost. The greater and lesser Moravars, at his solicitation, sent their troops as far