Page:History of the French in India.djvu/230

 208 THE FIRST STRUGGLE IN THE KARNATIK. chap. Koromandel coast, and thinking he might be able to '-, > serve his countrymen, he gallantly resolved to bear up 1747. for Fort St. David. He succeeded in this, in spite of the four ships of war under the unenterprising Dordelin and conveyed to the English garrison a reinforcement of twenty men and £60,000 in silver. This was the more acceptable, as, shortly before, another English ship, carrying soldiers and bullion, and consigned to Madras, had touched at Fort St. David, where deeming the state of the garrison irretrievable, her captain had refused to land either soldiers or money, but had pro- ceeded in all haste to Bengal. The small reinforcement we have referred to reached Fort St. David on March 2. On the 13th, Paradis put his troops in motion, and marching along the coast, took up a position the same day on the north of the Panar, about a quarter of a mile from the river. The Panar, though in some parts fordable, was in others of a sufficient depth to make crossing in the face of an enemy a difficult operation. Knowing this, the Eng- lish garrison wisely resolved not to wait for the French within the walls of the fort, but to oppose the passage of the river. They accordingly moved out, took up a position on the southern bank of the Panar, and com- menced a brisk cannonade on the French with three field-pieces they had brought with them. Paradis, for the time, contented himself with replying, but in the evening he moved with the bulk of his force higher up the river, and crossed it without opposition, — the Eng- lish volunteers, who had been sent to observe him, retiring on the loss of two of their number, and retreat- ing with the main body within the fort. Paradis im- mediately took possession of the walled garden from which De Bury in the former expedition had fled so precipitately, and made his preparations for the attack on the fort on the following day. Then was seen, with a clearness incapable of being