Page:History of the French in India.djvu/593

 THE FRENCH DEFEATED AT WAN 1)1 WASH. 567 guns, and not stopping till they had taken refuge be- chap. hind the right. Coote, noticing this, ordered Brereton to carry the intrenchment. But, before he could reach 17^0. it, Bussy, who commanded on the French left, hastily collected some fifty or sixty men of Lally's regiment, and led them into the intrenchment. They reached it just in time to fire a volley at the advancing English, which mortally wounded Brereton, but did not stop his men, who, coming on with a rush, carried the post. Whilst the key of the French position was thus carried, the English left, freed from the hostile cavalry, had marched to the aid of its centre and fallen on the right of the Lorraine brigade. This body, attacked in front and on both flanks, noticed the loss on the left of the position, and fell back in disorder, not, however, till it had lost its commandant and many officers, and had covered itself with glory. Bussy, meanwhile, after the loss of the intrenchment, had brought up the Lally bri- gade to recover it, and if possible to restore the battle. But whilst leading on his men to a bayonet charge, his horse was shot, and he, falling to the ground, was taken prisoner. The brigade having thus lost its leader, opposed in front by a superior force, whose artillery then played upon it, threatened also on its right flank by the victorious centre and left of the enemy, fell back in its turn, and abandoned the field. At this conjunc- ture, the cavalry, recovered from its panic, advanced to the front, and interposing itself between the retiring infantry and the advancing English, effectually put a stop to pursuit. The French were thus enabled to rally at a distance of less than a mile from the field of battle, and to carry off also the party they had left before the fort of Wandiwash. Such was the battle of Wandiwash — a battle which, though the numbers on each side were comparatively small, must yet be regarded as a decisive battle, for it dealt a fatal and decisive blow to French domination in