Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/398

374 homed Issoof to take the field with 2000 of their own Sepoys from the garrison of Tritchinopoly; and requested the king of Tanjore to join this body with 1000 of his horse, and the Polygar Tondiman, and even the distant Moravars, with the best of their troops; for whom, however, Mahomed Issoof was not to wait; and, in case none of these allies arrived in time, he was empowered to enlist 500 good horse if to be found in his march. The Nabob still maintained 300 horse, part of whom attended his person at St. Thomé, and the rest were dispersed in the adjacent districts, who on the receipt of some money joined the army at the Mount; to which all the Polygars to the northward of Madrass were likewise commanded to send their troops; but none came: and the Partizan Murzafabeg, having been refused an increase of pay which ho demanded in this hour of necessity, went off in the night with his 70 horse and some of his Sepoys, and took service with the French army at Conjeveram. The troops, of whose approach L.-Colonel Draper had received intelligence, were 500 irregular Sepoys, under the command of an active adventurer named Lambert, with part of the horse levied by Rajahsaheb, who had been sent forward to plunder and terrify the country. They crossed the Paliar, and on the 15th, appeared before Tripassour, and attacked the pettah, but were repulsed at the hedge which surrounds it, with the loss of 20 men, by the Peons of the renter, and the two companies of Sepoys stationed in the fort.

But the French army were not in such readiness as the English imagined to commence the siege of Madrass. All the draught bullocks which Pondicherry had been able to collect were not sufficient to transport one half of the heavy artillery necessary for the attack; and the greatest part of the train, with many other stores, had been laden a month before on the Harlem taken from the Dutch, which ship sailed across the bay, in order to work to the northward on the other side, when she was to stretch across again and fall in with Masulipatam, where she was to receive more cannon and stores, and then come down the coast to Madrass. The time was elapsed in which a well-sailing vessel might have made this passage, and without news of the Harlem; and on this disappointment