Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/494

470 300 Sepoys and 100 horse, under the command of Murzafabeg, who had deserted from the English a little before the siege of Madrass. The renters at Arcot furnished Mr. Soupires money and provisions for eight days, and he extended his troops in different parties between Arcot and Trivatore, which is situated 20 miles s. w. in the high road from thence to Vandiwash.

Mr. Lally, as soon as he heard that the English army was before Vandiwash, immediately came out of Pondicherry with 300 Europeans, ordering Mr. Soupires to meet him with the main body at Chittapet; where they arrived on the 14th. Trivatore is farther from Chittapet, than it is from Vandiwash. The nearer road from Vandiwash to Conjeveram is not good; but from Vandiwash to Trivatore, and hence to Conjeveram excellent, and of quicker dispatch, although by the large angle it makes several miles more. Major Brereton was informed in the evening of the 13th, of the march of the French army with Soupires, and that the whole had passed Trivatore; on which he decamped in the night from Vandiwash, and, by a forced march, arrived the next day at Trivatore, which he found abandoned, and blew up one of the bastions; and continuing the same stress of march they arrived, on the evening of the 15th, near Conjeveram. Several letters had passed with Murzafabeg, who pretended to be willing to betray his trust, but asked such terms as proved, that he only wanted to gain time until the French army could come to his relief; on which Colonel Monson, with the advanced division, invested the pagoda in the evening, which it was determined to storm the next morning. Murzafabeg no longer dissembled, but kept up a brisk fire of musketry through the night, by which several, and Colonel Monson himself, were wounded.

The gateway of the pagoda at Conjeveram is spacious and lofty, and the tower over it one of the largest and highest in the Carnatic. It stands in the middle of the western wall, and fronts the principal street of the town, which is very broad; but there is an area between, of the same breadth as the wall of the pagoda, and 300 yards across. There were no gates fixed in the gateway; and to cover the entrance the French had thrown up a ravelin before it in barbette, on which,