Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/613

Book XII. themselves. Their rout led them across the way, along which the French were retreating; whom 700 of them joined and accompanied, Colonel Coote sent repeated orders to his cavalry to harass and impede the retreat of the French line. They followed them five miles until five in the afternoon, but the black horse could not be brought up within reach of the carbines of the French cavalry, and much less of their field-pieces. The brunt of the day passed intirely between the Europeans of both armies, the black troops of neither had any part in it, after the cannonade commenced. The commandants of the English Sepoys complimenting Colonel Coote on the victory, thanked him for the sight of such a battle as they had never seen.

Twenty-four pieces of cannon were taken, 19 in the field and camp, and five in the battery against Vandiwash, 11 tumbrils of ammunition, all the tents, stores, and baggage, that were not burnt. Two hundred of the Europeans were counted dead in the field, and 160 were taken, of whom 30 died of their wounds before the next morning; six of the killed, and 20 of the prisoners, were officers: wounded continually dropt on the road; so that the immediate diminution of the enemy's force was computed 600 men. Of the English army, 63 Europeans were killed, and 124 wounded, in all 190; of this number, 36 of the killed, and 16 of the wounded, belonged to the Company's battalions, 17 and 66 to Draper's, 13 and 36 to Coote's regiment; four of the European horse, and two of the artillery, were wounded, but none of either killed. Of the black troops, 17 of the horse were killed, and 32 wounded: in all, 22 and 47: of the Sepoys only 6 and 15. The killed, as well in the European as the black troops, was, although not in the different bodies, one half of the number wounded, a proportion on the whole which rarely happens, excepting as in this action, by cannonade. The first news of the victory was brought to Madrass at sun-rise the next morning by one of the black spies of the English camp. At noon came in another, with a note of two lines, written with a pencil, by Colonel Coote on the field of battle; other accounts followed, and soon after eye-witnesses. The joy which this success diffused throughout the settlement, was almost equal to that of