Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/430

406 the fire of the defences could have little effect, excepting by luck, since they were concealed and defended, as usual, by a high and strong parapet: this annoyance, therefore, continued until seven in the evening, during which time only 80 shells had been, thrown from both, all of which fell about the middle of the inhabited part of the fort, where stood the government house, against which they seemed to have been aimed, and two went through the upper roof: much mischief was also done to the adjoining buildings; but not a single person was either killed or wounded by their fall or explosions, nor had any one suffered by the cannon shot of the morning. As soon as the night closed, several of the principal European women, with their children, were sent away in three massoolah boats, to reside under the protection of the Dutch settlement at Sadrass; they had not been gone two hours before intelligence was received from Captain Preston, that a French detachment had surprized the fort of Sadrass, taken possession of the town, and made the garrison and all the Dutch inhabitants prisoners; but it was too late to recal the Massoolahs. Another letter from Preston, which came in the morning, gave information of an action which he had sustained the day before. The town of St. Thomé was become a post of great consequence to the French army. The remains of an ancient ditch and bad ground round most parts of the town, with the river and the English redoubt to the south, secured it from surprize, unless attempted by very superior numbers. They accordingly made the town the station of their boats, as well as the temporary repository of their convoys coming by land, and had likewise established in it one of the hospitals of their camp: but the junction of Mahomed Issoofs troops, with Preston's, rendered the maintenance of the town an object of much greater doubt and solicitude, than when it was only exposed to sallies from the garrison of Fort St. George; and the body of French troops which had engaged Preston and Mahomed Issoof at the Mount on the 30th of December retreated immediately after the action to St. Thomè. The day after the action Preston received intelligence that the partizan, Lambert, was