Page:History of the French in India.djvu/592

 566 THE LAST STRUGGLE FOR EMPIRE. ( hap. directed, that about fifteen men in the front line were ~ . disabled, and, although had the French persisted, the 1760. English would not have had time to reload, the effect was to cause a panic amongst them. They, therefore, fled, leaving their leader alone. Lally, thus deserted, galloped towards the infantry in the centre, upon which the English guns in the other part of their line had already opened. He found them eager for an advance. Placing himself at their head, he formed them in column and marched against the English line. Re- gardless of the fire which thinned its rank as it ad- vanced, the French column charged, and by its superior weight broke that part of the English line which it attacked. The unbroken part of the English line, how- ever, immediately formed up on its flank, and threw the column into disorder. The men on both sides becoming then mingled together, a hand-to-hand contest ensued, which was yet undecided, when a fatal occurrence on the left of the French line determined the fate of the day. The extreme left of the French constituted the 'point d'appui of Lally' s position. It rested, as we have said, on a tank, in front of which and forming an obtuse angle with his line, was an intrenchment, from which two pieces of cannon played on the advancing English. So long as Lally held this firmly, the occurrences in the other part of the line were of secondary importance, for the English, even if successful, could not follow up an advance without exposing their flank. But it happened, unfortunately for him, that whilst his centre was en- gaged in desperate conflict with the English centre, a shot from the artillery on the enemy's right blew up a tumbril in the intrenchment, killing the Chevalier de Poete, and placing eighty men hors de combat. Nor was this the extent of the damage it occasioned ; for such was the panic caused by the explosion, that the sailors ran out of the intrenchment, abandoning the