Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/597

Book XII. living on the purchase of the day; nor had the inhabitants more than the common provision of their houses; but in the pagoda was the hospital, and a stock of military stores, under the guard of two companies of Sepoys, commanded by Lieutenant Chilsholm, of which the capture would have been distressing; but Mr. Lally having brought no cannon made no attempt on the pagoda, and employed his troops in collecting plunder, and setting fire to the houses of the town; during which, the Sepoys, and all the sick in the pagoda, who could move, came out, and being well acquainted with the streets and covers, continually attacked their smaller parties and stragglers, and whenever likely to be overpowered, disappeared. In the evening the enemy retreated, driving off 2000 bullocks, the most valuable part of their booty, loaded with the trumpery they had collected. By this time the other division of the army had arrived at Jangolam, a village on the bank of the Paliar, three miles from Conjeveram, from whence both united, immediately proceeded, and the next day reached Trivatore.

The nearest ground of the French line, whilst marching on this exploit, was eight miles from the advanced post of the English camp, whose black horse, awed by the number of the Morattoes, were afraid to venture, and could not be trusted so far abroad; and the European horse, being only one hundred, were not even sufficient for the necessary patroles of the camp; so that the first intelligence of the enemy's march was from Lieutenant Chisholm at Conjeveram, sent as soon as they appeared there. It arrived in the afternoon; Colonel Coote immediately set off with the cavalry, and ordered the whole army to follow, which was in march before the sun set, and before it rose at Conjeveram, where Colonel Coote, with the cavalry, had arrived at one in the morning. The way is twenty-one miles. It was now a month, that Mr. Bussy had acted once more in the field in conjunction with Mr. Lally; and the intercourse had only encreased the aversion. The late errors of Mr. Lally's operations, which had lost Vandiwash and Carangoly, without gaining any thing equivalent by the expedition to Seringham, had lowered his military character throughout the army; and even his own regiment as well as Lorrain, although the King's troops, began to acknowledge the