Page:Our Indian Army.djvu/190

166 dispelled by the arrival of Hyder's successor, who assumed the sovereignty which awaited him with an extraordinary affectation of humility and grief. He had now at his disposal troops estimated at eighty- eight thousand men, and a treasure amounting to three millions sterling, besides a great store of jewels and other precious effects.

Notwithstanding this studied concealment, the Government at Madras received early notice of the death of Hyder; and immediately urged their Commander-in-Chief to make a rapid movement, to take advantage of that disorganisation which usually follows such a crisis in an Indian government. But unfortunately the most violent dissensions prevailed just then between the civil and military authorities, which were highly injurious to the public service; and a dilatory course of proceedings was the natural result. Tippoo, however, considering the west of India as having become the principal theatre of hostilities, withdrew his troops from the Carnatic, in order that he might act in the latter with more effect. In consequence of his departure, it was determined to attack Cuddalore, where the French had now concentrated their main strength. Bussy, the French commander, had under him a numerous and brave army, with a considerable body of native troops; and in an attack which took place on the 13th of Jane, 1783, the English gained indeed the contested position, but with the loss of upwards of a thousand men. The garrison was afterwards repulsed with considerable loss in a midnight sally; but Suffrein, the French admiral, having evaded the British, fleet, and landed no fewer than two thousand four hundred men, the enemy acquired a decided superiority, and prepared for an enterprise which threatened the most disastrous consequences to the British. But at this critical moment intelligence arrived that peace was concluded between the two nations; upon which, Bussy soon after suspended offensive operations,