Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/743

Book XIII. which before night silenced all the guns against which it opened; on the N. w. bastion and its counter-guard, on St. Joseph's, on the two demi-bastions, and on the ravelin of the Valdore gate.

At night the pioneers, with 300 Lascars, went to work again at the royal battery; and the town, having well marked the aim, kept up a smart fire of shot, grape, and musketry, which killed or dangerously wounded twelve men in the battery. Several showers of rain fell in the night, which gave apprehension that the enemy would sally; but they refrained, and before day-light the battery was completed. It was called the royal, and contained 11 twenty-four pounders, and on the left three heavy mortars. It opened early in the morning, and, seconded by the cross and enfilading fire of the Hanover battery with 10 guns, soon silenced all the defences which bore upon it; excepting a gun or two on the bastion next the beach. Inactivity joined necessity in this unaccountable abandon of defence; which was so great, that, what rarely happens until all commanding works are entirely demolished, men were set, and continued at work throughout the day, along the whole line of the trenches, fixing more securely the gabions, ramming down the earth, and smoothing the tops of the parapet, that the troops, if sallied upon in the ensuing night, might fire over them with certainty and safety. A party was draughted to begin, as soon as it was dark, another battery of six guns, 300 yards nearer to the beach, and 150 nearer the walls: it was intended to destroy the flanks of the several bastions, which the royal battery could only take in reverse. As the sun was setting, Colonel Coote coming, as was his custom, to supervise the batteries, saw a flag advancing in the Villenore avenue; who, being challenged, announced the approach of a deputation. They came on foot, the town having neither horses or palankin bearers to carry them, and Colonel Coote received them at his head-quarters at Oulgarry. The deputies wore Colonel Durre, commandant of the king's artillery, father Lavaur, superior of the Jesuits, Moracin and Courtin, members of the council, with Tobin serving as interpreter.