Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/246

240 act in the country between Pondicherry and the Paliar, and to begin by the siege of Chittapet. The French troops, which had taken the field before the arrival of the squadron, were still remaining in their camp at Vandiwash, and on the 21st appeared in sight of Chittapet, where, on the 25th, they were joined by 300 of the regiment of Lorrain, and a train of artillery from Pondicherry.

The advance of the French troops created no little consternation in the city of Arcot, and incidentally became the cause of much confusion there. The Nabob had left the government of the city to his brother Abdulwahab, assisted by the councils of his mother, of Sampetrow, who had been the Duan or minister of his father, and of Ebrar Cawn, the Buxey or general of the troops. Many of the cavalry levied for the expedition to Nelore, had lately quitted his service for want of pay; some had enlisted with the French at Vandiwash, others with Mortizally at Velore. The desertion continuing, one Dana Sing, a straggling Jemautdar, came in the beginning of September, and encamped near the suburbs of Arcot with a hundred horse, intending to increase the number, by enlisting such as left the Nabob's service, and then offer the whole to the best bidders. These practices are so common in Indostan, that a body of cavalry may encamp between two opposite armies, and remain unmolested by either, whilst undecided which to join; and Dana Sing, relying on the customs he knew, prosecuted his business without reserve, and even with the knowledge of the English commandant in the fort, whom he sometimes visited. But malicious persons, who were in possession of the confidence of the commandant, began to insinuate, that the former as well as the present desertions were the effects of collusion and treachery, between the troops and Abdulwahab with the others to whom the Nabob had entrusted the government. Their artifices awakened his suspicions, which began to see the phantoms of plots and conspiracies, after which the slightest incidents became proofs to his credulity, and unluckily one happened, which might have raised mistrust in a more sagacious mind. The Nabob's mother had in appanage the fort of Chitore, situated in the mountains, about 20 miles from the pagoda of Tripetti, and