Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/460

436 practicable, inaccessible; but added, what they were not asked, that from a comparison of the forces, the prosecution of works to quell the fire of the place would only sacrifice the lives of many men without the least probability of success.

The only variation in the attack during the 8th, was the addition of one gun on Lally's, which now fired with five. The force with which the enemy intended to oppose the army at the Mount had collected in a separate camp on the Choultry Plain, and in their rear at Egmore were six field-pieces with four tumbrils. In the afternoon the Bristol anchored off St. Thomé returning with stores from Pondicherry; and, as it was apprehended that she might have brought a supply of large shells, the governor proposed that the Shaftsbury, reinforced with 40 soldiers from the shore, should attack her. Captain Ingliss concurred in this intention with alacrity; but his masts were so much damaged, that it required the repair of two days before he could set a sail. No annoyance, excepting mortars, passed between the besiegers and the fort during the night. Before the morning, the gallery in front of the blind before the north-east bastion had been carried far enough toward the sea to secure this work from any mines of the enemy, and was continued in a direction forward towards the palmyra palisade, of which the enemy were in possession, in order to cross any other they might be attempting against the east face of the covered way. Two explosions of powder had been occasioned in the enemy's works by the fall of shells during the night. In these 24 hours were one European and one Sepoy killed, and two Europeans and one Sepoy wounded; but no gun was dismounted.

In the three last days, information had been received from Captain Preston, that Major Calliaud was approaching with a reinforcement from the south; and these were the first advices concerning him, which had reached either Preston or the garrison since his departure to Tanjore; for every letter which he had written passing through the enemy's country, had been either intercepted by them, or carried far away by the messengers. A variety of untoward incidents had protracted the execution of his commission. He embarked at nine in