Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/672

648 French detachments from Thiagar and Gingee accompanied them: they came in unmolested, as before, by Ariancopang, and their arrival was complimented with a long salute of cannon. In the evening the guards before Villenore were reinforced, and double diligence employed through the night at the batteries.

The fort of Villenore was a circle 50 yards in diameter within the wall; it was surrounded by a ditch, a covered-way, and a glacis cut in angles, as a star. The rampart was a construction of masonry, divided into ten lodgements, or chambers, which were arched, the vaults bomb-proof, and the interstices at top were filled up to an equal level, which formed the terrace on which the cannon were mounted. Each of the chambers, was likewise opened through the outside of the wall in casements intended for cannon, but none were mounted in them. The breadth of the rampart, which was the length of the chambers, was 30 feet, and reduced the area within to a small pentagon, which in no direction was more than 45 feet over; so that if the chambers had not been bomb-proof, the place could not have stood an hour against this kind of artillery. Two villages lay near the fort, one directly north, the other to the north-east. They were about 200 yards from each other, and both were occupied by the English troops. The passage through the glacis to the fort was straight, and nothing obstructed the view quite up to the foot of the wall but the barrier gate, and the drawbridge, when up; neither of which could resist a shot; nevertheless, the French had neglected to cover this opening by a traverse, either in front or behind the passage. The advantage was taken, and a battery of two eighteen-pounders was erected between the two villages, to breach through the opening: another of the same force was erected in the village to the north, to destroy the parapet, and take in reverse the part intended to be breached.

Both batteries opened with the day on the 16th. At nine o'clock the French army, with all the Mysoreans, horse and foot, approached along the bank of the river of Ariancopang. Some of the black horse and Sepoys, with three field-pieces, were sent from the English camp to stop their advanced parties, whilst the line got