Page:History of the French in India.djvu/309

 THE ENGLISH ABE BEATEN. 287 The outer defences of the town, and the town itself, chap. fell at once into the hands of the assailants ; but this attack, and the burning of some houses outside, roused 1751, the garrison of the fort, and the English were compelled to recoil from its stone walls with considerable loss. Their ill-advised movement decided the governor. He threw himself at once into the arms of Chanda Sahib, and summoned the French to his aid. Before daylight, consequently, d'Auteuil put his force in motion, and entering the fort with a portion of his troops, poured upon the English such a fire of artillery, that notwith- standing all the efforts of their officers they quitted the field in a panic, abandoning their native allies, and leaving six pieces of cannon, several muskets, all their camp equipage and stores of ammunition, as a prey to the conqueror. Had the French pursued with any- thing like vigour, the war would have been that day at an end. But a fatality seemed to attend all the opera- tions that might have been decisive. D'Auteuil was laid up with the gout, and was quite unable to give his personal attention to details, nor had he a single officer with him upon whom he could rely. Instead, therefore, of taking advantage of the panic which had overcome the English, and of converting their defeat into an over- throw which must have been ruinous, the French and their allies contended themselves with maintaining a brisk cannonade on their enemy from the north bank of the little river Valaru, which he had crossed in his retreat. It has been said,* indeed, that Chanda Sahib was hindered in his onward movements by the defection of one of his generals, in command of 4,000 horse. Desertions from a victorious to a vanquished enemy are not common, least of all among nations of the East. But, however, they may have been, it did not influence in the smallest degree the movements of the French. It was for them, on this as on previous occasions, to give
 * Orme.