Page:History of the French in India.djvu/598

 572 THE LAST STRUGGLE FOR EMPIRE. C xi P * carr * e< *5 the cen tre attack was desperately contested — The French never fought better. Colonel Coote, on 1760. his side, seeing the importance of the place, brought up his best troops to defend it. But notwithstanding all his efforts, the French, though in the regiment of Lally alone they had lost eight sergeants besides several privates, still persisted, hoping to hear every minute the sounds of the assault on the enemy's rear. Just as these hopes were at their highest, d'Arambure and his men appeared, not in ths rear of the enemy, but between the assaulting columns and the town! This officer, who on other occasions had behaved so well, would appear to have lost his head; he crossed the river at a far lower point than had been poined out to him, and brought his men to the attack in exactly the opposite direction to that indicated by Lally. By this false move, he rendered impossible a success which, if attained, would have deferred, if it had not altogether prevented, the catastrophe that was to follow. The end was now near at hand. On September 16, Monson, who had succeeded Coote in the command of the English force, delivered an assault on the Ulgaral post, and compelled the French to quit the defence of the bound-hedge, and to retire under the walls of the place, This attack, however, cost the English many men, and Monson was so severely wounded, that Colonel Coote returned to take up his command. Notwith- standing this movement, which shut out all supplies from Pondichery, Lally determined to continue the defence, and prohibited all mention of surrender. Every measure that could be adopted to procure sustenance for the troops was taken; contributions were levied; grain was dug out of places where it had been buried for concealment; taxes were imposed;* the idle sections of the native inhabitants were turned adrift : no pre- ter the European inhabitants of the Council, de Leyrit presiding.
 * Erom the operation of these lat- town were specially exempted by the