Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/605

Book XII. The Morattoes were spread under the mountain to protect their own camp, and none of them ventured within reach of the two guns, which during the march had kept on the left of the first line; but some of the French cavalry came out to reconnoitre, and were driven back by their fire. The army halted some time in this situation, in expectation that the defiance would bring the French out of their camp; but they still remained quiet; which obliged Colonel Coote to prosecute the rest of the operations he had meditated. The ground for some distance from the mountain, is, as under all others in the Carnatic, encumbered with stones and fragments of rock. From this rugged ground up to the fort the plain was occupied by rice fields. The English army coasting the mountain until opposite to the fort, and then making a conversion of their lines to the right, would immediately be formed in the strongest of situations; their right protected by the fire of the fort; their left by the impassable ground under the mountain, and with the certainty of throwing any number of troops, without opposition, into the fort; who, sallying with the garrison to the other side, might easily drive the enemy from their batteries in the pettah; from whence the whole of the English army might likewise advance against the French camp, with the choice of attacking it either on the flank, or in the rear, where the main defences, which had been prepared in the front of their encampment, or arose from the usual dispositions on this side, would become entirely useless. The English army had no sooner began their march along the foot of the mountain, than Mr. Lally perceived the intention, with all the consequences of this able operation. The camp immediately beat to arms, and soon after the troops were seen issuing to occupy the ground in front of its line, where the field of battle had been previously marked out.

The French cavalry, 300 riders, all Europeans, formed on the right; next »to them were the regiment of Lorrain, 400 firelocks: