Page:Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan.djvu/99

Rh march of a hundred miles in two days and a half, and with his whole army took up a strong position between the British troops and Gúdalúr.

On July 1, Coote, having abandoned the siege and embarked his munitions of war, advanced to encounter the enemy, hoping to dislodge them from the ground they had taken up, and to force on a general action. Forming his troops into column, with a strong baggage-guard between his right and the sea, he moved on rapidly, keeping to the east of a ridge of sandhills which intervened between him and Haidar's force. His first line at length reached an opening in the ridge, which he penetrated, after clearing it of the party that held it, and deployed again in order of battle with his front to the west. He then awaited, under a heavy fire, the arrival of his second line, which, notwithstanding repeated assaults of Haidar's cavalry aided by guns, steadily advanced and occupied a prominent sandhill near the Pass. Haidar, enraged at the gallant resistance offered by Coote's second line, directed a desperate charge of all his cavalry on both the lines of the little English force. This attack was bravely repelled, and the loss inflicted by the grape of the defenders was so heavy that Haidar was induced to withdraw, first his guns, and then all his troops, while Coote, when his two lines were united, moved on and took up a position at Mútipáliam, near Porto Novo. Haidar left the scene of battle with great reluctance, and was indeed nearly captured. He is said to have lost 10,000 men