Page:History of the French in India.djvu/247

 BOSCAWEN RAISES THE SIEGE. 225 further on that side, and that it had become necessary chap. to raze the batteries that had been erected. When at last a heavy fire was opened on another part of the 1743. town, they discovered that owing to the skill and energy of Dupleix, the fire of the besieged at that point was double that of the besiegers. The ships of the fleet which were brought up, as a last resource, to bombard the town, were compelled to sheer off after receiving much more damage than they had been able to inflict.* So energetic, so determined, so successful was the de- fence, that the English admiral found, at the end of five weeks, that he had actually gained no ground at all ; that he had lost some of his best officers and very many men ; that the enemy had been able to concen- trate on his several attacks a fire far more destructive than that which he had been able to bring to bear on their defences. Added to this, the periodical rains which began to fall at the end of September had brought sickness into his camp, and had warned him that the real difficulties of his position were only about to begin. Under these circumstances, acting under the advice of a council of war, he commenced on the 14th October the destruction of the batteries, and the re- embarkation of the sailors and heavy stores. On the 17th, this vast army, the largest European force that had till then appeared on Indian soil, and which counted Clivef amongst its ranks, broke up and retreated to Fort St. David, leaving behind it 1,065 men, who had perished either from the fire of the enemy, or from sickness contracted during the siege. J referred to, naively remarks that " owing to the distance of the ships from the town, and the heavy swell of the sea, shots never successively struck the same object." t The author of the journal writes as follows : 44 The celebrated Lord Clive, then an ensign, served in the trenches on this occasion, and by his gallant conduct gave the first prog- 1 ostic of that high military spirit, which was the spring of his future actions, and the principal source of the decisive intrepidity and elevation of mind, which were his character- istic endowments." X The loss of the French d urine:
 * The author of the journal before