Page:Dupleix and the Struggle for India by the European Nations.djvu/92

Rh set out with 300 Frenchmen the night after the return of the envoys from Valdávar, surprised the camp about three o'clock in the morning, and returned to Pondichery before the paucity of his numbers could be perceived. His men had killed 1200 of the enemy, and had lost but three of their own number. But the blow had had all the effect Dupleix had hoped from it. It so frightened the Subáhdár that he made a hasty retreat on Arcot, whilst Lawrence fell back with his English on Fort St. David.

By the retreat of Nádir Jang, Muhammad Alí was left without support, close to the fortified pagoda of Tíruvádí, some thirteen miles from Fort St. David. D'Auteuil, making a night march with 500 men, seized that fortified pagoda; and, placing in it a garrison of seventy men, of whom twenty were French, established himself firmly on the Panár. Muhammad Alí, alarmed, sent pressing messages alike to Nádir Jang and the English for aid. The former sent him 20,000 men, the latter a detachment of 400 Englishmen and 1500 sipáhis under Captain Cope. It happened that the Governor, Mr. Floyer, had been removed from his office, and Major Lawrence had been ordered to take his place, pending the arrival of the new Governor, Mr. Saunders, from Viszagatam. He had no choice, therefore, but to send Cope in command.

Thus strengthened, Muhammad Alí marched against Tíruvádí. Alarmed by the formidable appearance it presented, he turned then to the French camp, and cannonaded the position taken up by D'Auteuil. But