Page:History of the French in India.djvu/524

 498 C H AN DR AN AG AR AND THE DAKAHN. chap, hearts of the tired soldiers. Though surrounded and , harassed, they pushed on, favoured considerably by the 1756. merely feigned action of J anuji and Ramchandr. It was not, however, till 5 p.m. that they reached the town of Haiatnagar, having thus marched twenty-two hours with- out intermission, overcoming obstacles which alone were most difficult, but which were increased tenfold by the unceasing attacks of the enemy. Their losses had not been light : 25 Europeans, two of them officers, had been killed, 65 wounded ; the sipahis, who were more in number, had likewise suffered more. Of the enemy it was calculated that upwards of 2,000 were killed ; no wonder, when we find that the French fired 40,000 musket cartridges, besides their field-pieces.* Four hours later Bussy heard of the arrival of the detachment at Haiatnagar. He at once sent out a party he had before organised, consisting of 140 Europeans, 1,000 sipahis, with a large proportion of carriage for the sick and wounded, and with provisions, to bring them in. To prevent any attack being made upon this party, he availed himself of the opportunity to beat up the Subadar's camp with his remaining forces. Every- thing turned out as he had wished, and at ten o'clock the next morning Law's detachment entered Haidarabad without having seen an enemy between that place and Haiatnagar. The arrival, an hour later, of a messenger from the Subadar with proposals for an accommodation, showed Bussy that he had not ventured in too sanguine a spirit to maintain his post at Haidarabad. He felt again, as he had felt before, at Aurangabad in 1753, that he was absolute master of the situation. Again, too, he evinced his unsurpassed tact and judgment, in not insisting too strongly on concessions, which his position as master would have enabled him to enforce. He wished to return to his post on the invitation of the Subadar, tc
 * Qrme. Vide also the M Seir Mutakherin."