Page:History of the French in India.djvu/281

 THE FIIENCH DEFEAT MUHAMMAD ALT. 259 selves with maintaining their position, ready to profit chap. by the disagreement which, they felt sure, would be ' a produced by this repulse between Muhammad Ali and 1750. his English allies. So indeed it happened. As prone to be unduly depressed in adversity as to be inflated in prosperity, Muhammad Ali did not consider himself safe from the attacks of the French so long as he remained in the open country. He therefore proposed to retreat upon Arkat. The English, who wished to cut off the French from Pondichery, finding that Muhammad Ali would neither listen to their advice nor advance any more money, returned to Fort St. David. No sooner was Dupleix acquainted with this movement than he directed d'Auteuil to break up from his encampment, and march on Tiruvadi ; there to join a corps of 1,300 Europeans and 2,500 sipahis led by de la Touche, and 1,000 horse commanded by Chanda Sahib. With this force he was to surprise the camp of Muhammad Ali. This Nawwab, with an army of upwards of 20,000 men, of whom the greater part were cavalry, had taken up a position between Tiruvadi and Fort St. David, with the river Panar in his rear, and awaited there the instruc- tions for which he had applied to Nasir Jang. But on the afternoon of September 1, the day after the de- parture of the English, he was attacked by d'Auteuil. The French army advanced in good order, the artillery in front, the cavalry on either wing. In this formation, in full view of the army of Muhammad Ali, the handful of men moved forward, halting occasionally to fire their guns. So long as they were at a distance, the gunners of the Nawwab's army replied by an ineffective fire. But when, within two hundred yards of the intrench- ments, d'Auteuil brought up his infantry, and ordered a general charge, the courage of the Asiatics gave way. Not an effort was made to defend the entrance into the camp ; the intrenchments were abandoned s 2