Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/649

Book XII. only be made by scrambling up the wall, as they had no ladders. Eight or ten got up to the parnpet, but three or four mounting at the same time were killed, which deterred those who were next from following, and flung the whole into confusion, on which the enemy sallied, but the horse rode in between, and drove them back. The Sepoys rallied again in the pettah, and were preparing ladders to escalade before day-break; but at eighht o'clock at night the garrison abandoned the fort. Captain Wood placed three of the regular companies of Sepoys, and 200 of the renters, to garrison it, under the command of an Ensign; and at ten at night set out on his return with the cavalry and the other company of Sepoys. They arrived at one in the morning at Vicrivandi, where he left this company, and, proceeding, rejoined the camp a little after sun-rise With the cavalry, which accomplished this march of 60 miles in 36 hours.

Since the retreat of the French army, their countries to the west-ward of Villaporum and Gingee, and the forts intended to protect them, had, like this, been left to the defence of such troops as the renters chose to levy and maintain; and in the end of March, Captain Airey, who commanded in Chittapett, and from thence over Trinomaly, sent a detachment of Sepoys to enable the garrison there to take the field, which in a few days drove the guards out of Soolabgur, Tricalour, and Trivaneloor: these three forts had been taken possession of by Mahomed Issoof and Kistnarow of Thiagar, whilst they were ravaging the countries adjacent to them during the siege of Madrass. Soolabgur is situated on a hill 15 miles s. s. w. and Tricolour on the plain 20 miles s. of Trinomaly: Trivelanoor stands 10 miles s. E. of Tricaloor, and 20 s. w. of Villaporum. The French garrison of Gingee on the one side, and of Thiagar on the other, were the nearest to protect these lesser forts; but both were too much alarmed for their own safety, to risk any detachments abroad: the one by the Nabob's camp then at Volcondah, the other by the English army at Killenore. Kistnarow, after the loss of Thiagar in the preceding month of June, had remained with the Nabob at Tritchinopoly, and, after the victory of Vandivash, obtained his permission to act as a free-booter in the French districts, and,