Page:History of the French in India.djvu/590

 564 THE LAST STRUGGLE FOE EMPIRE. chap, engineer, M. Durre, insisted on proceeding as if he had XI1 ' been engaged in a regular siege. " The soldiers," wrote 1760. Lally, " said openly, that it seemed as though they were about to attack Luxemburg." It resulted from these methodical tactics, that four days were wasted in the construction of batteries; two more in rectifying its defects ; on the seventh day, the English appeared advancing to the relief of the place. The great blow, well contrived, having thus failed in consequence of the absence of the two qualities essen- tial to its success, there but remained now to Lally the chances of a battle. By the arrival of Bussy, who joined him on the evening of the 20th, he was able, after leaving 150 Europeans and 300 sipahis in the batteries, to bring into the field 1,350 European infantry, about 200 of whom were sailors, and 150 cavalry. He had besides about 1,800 sipahis, and 2,000 Maratha cavalry ; but of the former, all but 300 refused to be led into the field, whilst but 60 of the Marathas were present, the remainder being engaged in foraging for the army. The force led by Colonel Coote, on the other hand, consisted of 1,900 Europeans, of whom 80 only were cavalry, and 3,350 natives.* On hear- ing from the Maratha scouts that the English were approaching, Lally hastened to draw up his men in a single line. His left, thrown forward, resting on a tank, and, supported by an intrenchment on the other side of it, formed an obtuse angle with his line, and commanded the ground over which the enemy must pass. This intrenchment was manned by the sailors and armed with a couple of guns. His centre rested on nothing, but about 400 yards in its rear were two defiles, protected by a dyke, and guarded by fifty men and two guns. These fifty men were drawn up in front of the head of the defiles, so as to have the appearance given has been adopted from Lally's taken from Orme.
 * The number of the French here reports: that of the English has been