Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/647

Book XII. and by the parapet of the fausse-bray, which remained undamaged but the gate of the barrier leading through the glacis to the east ravelin, had been beaten down by ricochet shot flying over the battery, which the enemy had raised before it. The bascul, or carpentry, which raised and let down the draw-bridge before the N. E. face of the east ravelin, had likewise been shot away, and the bridge fallen into its place, and the garrison had not yet destroyed it to interrupt the passage, which thus remained clear to the ravelin. The gateway leading through the curtain into the fort was at the back of this ravelin: and the same fire had destroyed the gates which closed it, nor had any thing been substituted to stop the passage; so that, if the storm had been immediately and desperately attempted this way, the enemy had nothing to oppose it, but the arms in their hands. All these circumstances Major Monson did not know; but the commandant of the fort feared, and answered the summons by requesting to march away with the honours of war: to which Monson replied, that the whole garrison must become prisoners of war; but that the inhabitants should be left in possession of their houses in the pettah, the officers have their baggage, and the Sepoys might go where they pleased. The terms were accepted; and the English troops marched in at two in the afternoon. The garrison consisted of 115 Europeans, of whom 101 were military, 72 Topasses, and 250 Sepoys. Besides smaller arms and stores, there were in the place 155 pieces of cannon of all sorts, and nine mortars, with a large stock of ammunition for both. Only five men were killed in the defence, and in the attack only three Europeans, one of whom was a sailor, and five wounded. Never perhaps was so great an armament prepared, to succeed with so little loss, excepting when Delabourdonnais took Madrass in 1746.

Nevertheless, the capture was well worth the exertion: as besides the advantages of its situation with respect to the sea, it afforded the French a constant and certain inlet to the territories of Tanjore, and by various purchases and cessions from the government they had acquired districts round the fort, containing 113 villages, of which the farms, with the customs of the port and town, never