Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/667

Book XII. secret amongst themselves, objecting more especially to the monthly sum which the Mysoreans were to receive as pay, to discharge which no money existed; and that the territories ceded to them were of much more value than the indefinite services they were likely to perform. Nevertheless this clandestine disapprobation was unworthy their office, being calculated to exempt themselves from blame, and to exaggerate it on Mr. Lally, if affairs should better with the assistance of the Mysoreans; at the same time the apparent sanction evinced that the council saw no immediate means so likely to stop the progress of the English successes, which had taken every thing abroad but Thiagar and Gingee, and were at this instant menacing the capital, Pondicherry: so that had the council meant sincerely, they only promised the half of what they had lost, or never possessed, to obtain the only chance of gaining the other half, perhaps of preserving what remained. The treaty was signed on the 27th, and on the 28th at night all the Mysoreans went away, promising to return very soon with their whole force, and abundance of provisions. The next day the French army retreated from Perimbé to the bound-hedge. In this interval, the squadron had bren joined by two ships of the line from England, the Norfolk of 74, and the Panther of 64 guns, which anchored at Cuddalore on the 15th; and a few days after one of the Company's ships arrived from Tellicherry on the Malabar coast, with a detachment of 100 Europeans, and 122 Topasses, sent from that settlement by order from Bombay. This, with the detachment of artillery which arrived a little before, would have been a great reinforcement at any time, but was at this juncture more especially seasonable; and these exertions did honour to the councils of that Presidency, which had hitherto been very cautious of parting with any part of its force.

On the 30th, the day after the French army returned to their bounnds, Colonel Coote detached the remainder of the hussars, who were 20, 500 black horse, 50 European infantry, and four companies of Sepoys, to Major More, that he might be strong enough to encounter the whole body of the Mysoreans in their approach to Pondicherry. This officer had been joined at Tricalore on the 24th, by Kistnarow,