Page:Dupleix and the Struggle for India by the European Nations.djvu/162

Rh in number, 800 sipáhis, and four guns. The French blocked the road with 240 European infantry, 6000 sipáhis, and a troop of 80 European horsemen, near Kantapára, seven miles from Trichinopoli, whilst Morárí Ráo, with 3500 native horsemen, lay in ambush in some thick woods. The surprise was complete (February 26); the English in long single file could offer no efficient resistance. They could only die at their posts. The horsemen had already killed fifty of them when the French infantry came up. They at once offered quarter. The offer was accepted, and 134 Englishmen, of whom 100 were wounded, became prisoners to the French. Of the English officers, four were killed, three were taken prisoners, and one escaped. The victors captured likewise four pieces of cannon, about £7000 in money, and the convoy of provisions.

But this success was only a flash in the pan. On the 23rd of May a force of 700 Frenchmen, supported by a large body of sip&his and Maráthá horse, was repulsed by an English force much inferior in numbers. It was an occasion which, had the French been well led, might have proved decisive of the war; for, for some time, the English were in great peril. But the resources of Dupleix were by no means exhausted. Under his orders Mainville, by a skilful