Page:History of the French in India.djvu/567

 THE SIEGE BEGUN. 541 The loss of these two able officers far outweighed in c ^ p - importance the loss of the rank and file. v — %~ The same day Lally established his headquarters in 1758. the Black Town, and waited impatiently for his heavy guns. But before they arrived the expenses of the cam- paign had begun to exhaust the sums raised by the cap- ture of the town. At this crisis, however, the frigate " La Fidele " arrived at Pondichery having on board one million of francs (£40,000). She ought to have brought to Pondichery two millions, but, having touched at the Isle of France about the time of the arrival there of d'Ache from Pondichery, that unpatriotic and inefficient officer had appropriated one million for the service of his squadron, sending the frigate on with the remainder. She arrived at her destination on December 21st, just in time to determine Lally, not merely to content him- self with devastating the country round Madras, but to besiege that place in form. The arrival of his heavy guns about the same time enabled him to complete his arrangements. His artillery then consisted of twenty pieces of 12, 18, and 24-pounders, and of ten mortars, 8 and 12-pounders. These were soon placed in position and a fresh parallel opened at a distance of 500 yards from the place. He had decided to attack the fort on the side immediately opposite the position he had taken up, although in appearance it was the strongest. He satisfied himself partly on the ground that though the fort might be the stronger on that side, the ap- roaches to it could be more easily made ; and partly, because, as had been proved on the 14th, the in- tricacies of the Black Town afforded a means of de- fence against sorties, such as bade defiance to an enemy. But Lally soon found how impossible it was to effect anything great with officers the majority of whom were bad, and with an army disorganised and disaffected. The difficulties and obstacles which he had to encounter