Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/410

386 horse, excellently mounted and disciplined; the greatest number which had hitherto appeared together in India. The intention was to gain time, for every day was precious; and not to dispirit the troops, who were to sustain the impending siege, and might have made sinister reflections if they had been hastily led back within the walls, before their own understandings were convinced of the necessity. The ground and the advantages which were taken of it by Colonel Lawrence, secured their retreat, when it should become necessary. The Choultry plain extends two miles to the west of the enclosures which bound the St. Thomé road, and terminates on the other side at a large body of water called the Meliapore Tank, behind which runs with deep windings, the Triplicane river. The road from the Mount passes two miles and a half under the mound of the tank, and at its issue into the Choultry plain, was a kind of defile, formed by the mound on one hand, and buildings with thick enclosures on the other. Colonel Lawrence, retreating from the Mount, halted and remained during that and the next day, which was the 10th, opposite to this defile. On the 11th he cut through the mound of the tank, which swamped the whole length of the road, and then retreated to the other extremity of the plain, close to the enclosures nearest the Triplicane river. In this situation his field-pieces commanded the road leading across the plain to that part of the enclosures through which this road continues to that of St. Thomé, which from the junction continues straight to the bridge of Triplicane. Three companies of Sepoys were advanced in front on the left, to a choultry standing at the skirt of the plain, where the road enters the enclosures. The French army remained at the Mount during the 11th, but marched before day-break on the 12th; and at sun-rise all their European cavalry, having taken a circuit to the south of the plain, appeared at the choultry so unexpectedly, that the Sepoys scarcely staid to give their first fire, and ran into the enclosures on their left, through which they gained the main body. The cavalry, thinking themselves secured by a small grove, which was in the rear of the