Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/478

454 their other necessities equally ill supplied; who nevertheless, notwithstanding the discontented discourses of their officers, still more dishonourable because they had all got plunder, persevered in their duty with unremitting spirit and alacrity, and Mr. Lally seems to have respected their merit. But the Sepoys had neither the same principles, nor received the same encouragement, for he had always treated them, as all the natives in general, with the utmost contempt and severity, which they now revenged, just as their slender services became most important, by threatening to leave the army, if they were not immediately paid; and spreading their example by their correspondence, 500, who had been posted with a few Europeans in the fort of Tripassore, forced the gates, and marching out with their arms plundered the country, in order, as they said, to collect their arrears. The news was brought to the black town a few hours after the event, on the 15th, and created much anxiety, because all the provisions which the army received, came by Tripassore, and might be easily diverted by these malcontents. Few refrained from declaring that the siege ought to be immediately raised; but Mr. Lally, to maintain the lead of his own opinion, gave out that he would never quit the enterprize, until he had tried the success of a general assault, and talked as if the hour was not far distant.

The next morning, which was the 16th, the enemy's cannon, although not increased in number, fired with more vivacity than for many days before. At 3 in the afternoon intelligence was brought by a catamaran from Paliacat, that a sloop, which had just anchored there, had spoke on the 9th of the month in the lat. of 14°, with the ships from Bombay, from which the Shaftsbury had separated; and that they had been seen on the 12th off Durasapatam, 100 miles to the north of Madrass. At 5 o'clock in the afternoon, the six ships were descried in the N. E. standing towards the road; nevertheless the enemy's fire continued with uncommon vivacity until sunset; and it being concluded, that, if they had ever intended to make a general assault, it would be attempted this night, before the reinforcements could be landed, every soldier and inhabitant in the garrison capable of standing to his arms repaired to their respective posts,