Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/701

Book XIII. the south curtain with ricochet. Both opened at sun-rise, the breathing with six guns, the mortals and cohorns; the ricochet with two field-piece; the fort returned with firmness, and with much vivacity, and the advantage of a cross fire from the s. w. bastion and cavalier on the left, and from the mass of masonry of the gateway on the right. On the 26th the: approaches were carried on to within forty yards of the ditch, when the fire of the enemy's musquetry growing strong and sure, Captain Smith ordered the remainder of the trenches to be conducted by double sap, which is with earth and gabions on each side. The small number of Europeans in the detachment, with the inexperience of most of them in carrying oil trenches, and the continual tire of the fort by night, as well as by day, rendered the progress of the double sap extremely tedious, insomuch, that seven days were employed in carrying it, although not more than 200 yards of work, to embrace the angle of the counterscarp, and to spring a mine, which blew it into the ditch. It was perhaps the first time that the Mysoreans had ever seen an enemy advancing under cover to the foot of their walls, and notwithstanding the novelty of the attack, they suspected, which was true, that the fort might be entered by the same means; this apprehension, with the ruin that had been committed in a large tract of country round Caroor by the matchlock-men and horse of Tondiman and Tanjore, and the whole body of colleries, who had every day been making excursions, prompted the governor to propose terms for the cessation of hostilities. He began by disavowing any participation of the King with the body of troops which had joined the French in the Carnatic, and declared Hyder Ally, whom he saied a rebel the author of that alliance and expedition; in consequence, he wanted a temporary and conditional surrender. Several messages passed, in the intervals of which the attack and defence was renewed; at length the eighteen-pounder, the only piece of effectual battery, burst, and the breach was not yet practicable, Which induced Captain Smith to agree to the following conditions: "That an English serjeant, and sixty Sepoys, should immediately be put